We're OK
by LanieSullivan
Summary: What if Lorelai had lied to Sookie about being pregnant in 6.17 and Luke got a wake up call that made him realize he was about to lose the woman he loved?
1. Chapter 1

Author's note: I have recently been re-watching GG from beginning to end and I just got to the ep "I'm OK, You're OK" and there were several things that bugged me about it. First of all, why is Lorelai continually not telling Luke how she feels about him pushing her aside and how is he not noticing that she's not herself? He used to be so intuitive when it came to sensing something was off with her. Second, why was he knocking on the door, when numerous times earlier in the season, he was just letting himself in? Also, what was the deal with the whole duffel bag thing when in season 4, he'd told Lorelai that he had luggage as he'd just gone on a cruise? Then I had another thought, what if Lorelai had lied to Sookie when she asked her if she was pregnant, because she hadn't told Luke yet? For all you April haters out there, I apologize. I actually liked April. I thought she was a very cool character, I just couldn't stand the way Luke handled the situation and the way Lorelai just put up with it. I also had another idea. (I have way too many thoughts in my overcrowded head.) What was Luke doing between the time he was making s'mores for Rory and the time he showed up at the house and what if he got a wake-up call that made him see that he was on the verge of losing Lorelai? I also wondered what Emily's "Oh my God" was about when she walked into Lorelai's bedroom. With all that in mind, I decided I was going to take my first stab at writing a GG story to fill in the blanks and attempt to correct the mess of the remainder of season 6. I've written fan fiction before, just not GG, so if it sucks, don't hesitate to tell me. I can take it.

Disclaimer: _Gilmore Girls _is the property of Amy Sherman-Palladino and The WB. This work is intended strictly for entertainment purposes and no copyright infringement is intended.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Lorelai Gilmore emptied the contents of her stomach for the third time that morning and sank against the toilet. She reached up toward the counter and stared in disbelief at the test she'd just taken. There was no doubt about it. She wasn't just late. She was pregnant. She'd suspected it for a couple of weeks now since she hadn't had a period in March, but she just hadn't gotten up the nerve to take the test, afraid of the results. It was weird. She's wanted this for so long, ever since Luke's "What about the kids?" outburst. That was when she realized that he wanted to have kids with her and how she herself wanted him to be the father of her children since he'd always been a father figure to Rory. Now she wasn't so sure that he still wanted that anymore since April had come into his life. She placed her hand lightly over her stomach thinking about everything. She had longed to be the one to give Luke his first child, but that wasn't possible now. Some woman she knew nothing about had beaten her to the punch. She's never met Anna and hated her for robbing her of that. She knew she was being irrational. After all, she'd had a kid with someone else long before she ever met him. She knew she should be happy that she was carrying Luke's baby, but she couldn't shake the nagging feeling that he wouldn't be happy about it. She knew in her heart that he'd be an excellent father, but she wondered if this would be just one more thing to push him over the edge.

She felt tears stinging her eyes when she thought about how and when she was going to tell Luke. She dreaded his reaction with the way he'd been pushing her aside lately. A few months ago, she'd had no doubt about how he'd take the news. He would have been thrilled beyond belief, but since April came into his life and they'd postponed the wedding, she was afraid of what he'd do. Would he push her even further away? Would he bolt? _No, _she thought, even worse, he'd insist on getting married right away even though he clearly wasn't ready for marriage. His actions the past few months had proven that. He hadn't even moved in yet. She has a brand new huge bedroom that she was sleeping in alone more often than not. Thinking about this, she made her decision. She'd wait a while to tell him. She wanted to marry him more than anything, but she wanted him to want to marry her because he was ready start their life together, not just because he's gotten her pregnant. She'd turned Christopher down many times when she was young because she's known that the only reason he asked was that he thought he had to marry her because of Rory. She didn't want to put that pressure on Luke when she knew he was already under a lot of stress trying to learn how to be a real father to April. She only wished that he'd let her in enough to help. She hated seeing him struggling.

_It's my own fault that he's keeping me out of April's life. I kept him out of the situation with Rory when he wanted to help. Maybe this is his way of paying me back for shutting him out. _She regretted the thought immediately. She knew Luke wasn't that petty but she kept asking herself why he didn't want her to get to know his daughter the way she'd let him get to know Rory. Of all the guys she'd dated over the years, he was the only one she'd ever really let that close to her kid, other than Max, but that couldn't be helped since he'd been her teacher. The funny thing was that it was Luke that had made her realize that she didn't love Max enough to marry him that day he'd brought the chuppah to her house and they'd had that conversation about marriage. Now here they were years later, engaged, yet they'd stopped talking about marriage.

Lorelai pulled herself up off the bathroom floor, walked toward the bathroom door and heard him on the phone talking to someone. From the sound of the conversation she figured it must be April. She sighed as she realized that whatever they were talking about that made him sound so happy right now was just one more thing that she wouldn't get to share with him. She stepped into the shower and turned the water on when she suddenly remembered that pregnancy test on the counter. She picked it up and shoved it as far down in the trash can as it would go and buried it under some other stuff so he wouldn't find it. She got back in the shower and enjoyed a brief moment of just letting the warm water beat down on her and wishing it could wash away all her fears. She reached for her shampoo and started lathering up her hair. It was then that she noticed the creepy spider lurking in the corner of the shower and let out an ear-piercing scream. She grabbed the soap dish and trapped the spider beneath it as she hastily reached for her robe and ran out of the bathroom to find Luke still on the phone.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

After Lorelai and Rory left the diner, Luke went upstairs and started flipping through the mail that he hadn't yet gotten to. When he saw the invitation, he beamed with pride in his only nephew. He picked up the phone and dialed his number. After two rings, he heard a familiar voice answer.

"Hello? " Jess answered.

"Hey," Luke replied. I just got your invite. This is very cool. I'm so proud of you."

"It's no big deal. I just thought after everything that you've done for me that you might like to know that I didn't turn out to be a total screw-up after all."

"It _is _a big deal and for the record, I never thought you were a total screw-up."

"Oh, Please! When you found out I wasn't going to graduate from high school, you looked at me like I was the biggest loser in the world."

"That's not true. The truth is I felt like I was the biggest loser in the world because I failed you."

"You didn't fail me. I failed you and myself, but I've finally started to get my life together. A lot of that is because of your influence."

"I appreciate that, Jess. I just can't believe you did it. I mainly just called to tell you that I'm proud of you and let you know that we'll be there to help you celebrate."

"Great! I can't wait to see you and Lorelai."

"Um, " Luke hesitated. "It's not going to be me and Lorelai. It's going to be me and April."

"Are things ok between you and Lorelai?"

"Yeah, they're fine," He assured Jess, though not entirely sure of this himself. "It's just that April's got a field trip with her math team in Philly and I'm chaperoning the thing."

"And Lorelai is ok with you just taking off?"

"Of course she is. In fact, she's actually encouraging it. She knows how important it is to me to be a bigger part of April's life."

"So, she gets along with April then?"

"Well, they haven't really spent that much time together.

"Why not? Doesn't she want to get to know your kid?"

"I'm still trying to get to know April myself."

"So what? Why can't you get to know her together? I mean, in just two short months, Lorelai is going to be your wife and April's stepmother. I think it would be nice if they got to know each other before the wedding."

"Actually, I've been meaning to talk to you about that. We've postponed the wedding."

"Oh. So, when's the new date?"

Luke was silent for a moment.

"Uncle Luke?" Jess said. "Are you still there?"

"Yeah, I'm here."

"Ok, you're still there. So, are you going to answer my question? If I'm going to be your best man, I kinda need to know when the wedding's gonna be."

"I'll let you know when we set a new date."

"So, the wedding's cancelled then?"

"No!" Luke snapped getting irritated with Jess and his questions. "The wedding is not cancelled. Lorelai and I are still engaged. The wedding's just been postponed."

"No, Luke. It's been cancelled. See, when you postpone something, you set a new date. You don't put it off indefinitely. Don't you want to marry Lorelai?"

"How can you even ask me that? Of course I still want to marry her."

"Then, why haven't you set a new date yet?"

"We're just waiting for things to calm down a little. This whole thing with April kind of threw me for a loop."

"And that's got what to do with your engagement to Lorelai?"

"Are you kidding me? This changes everything."

"Only if you let it"

"Funny, that's what your mom said when I told her about this."

"I never thought I'd say this, but Mom's right. This April thing is just a speed bump, not a roadblock."

"You don't know what you're talking about. You don't know what it's like suddenly finding out you've got a twelve year old id you knew nothing about."

"No, but I know you and how you are in relationships. Remind me when you get here next week to give you those books back."

"What the hell are you talking about? What books?"

"I'm talking about those cornball books on love that you gave e a couple of years ago. You clearly need a refresher course because you don't seem to have learned from them."

"Yes I have. Lorelai and I wouldn't be together right now if hadn't learned something from them."

"Ok. So, how does she feel about postponing the wedding?"

"It was her suggestion. She's fine with it. She knows that I need some time to process everything and that I'm trying to get to know my daughter." Luke cringed as he thought back to their conversation that night in Martha's Vineyard. She was so upset that night about having had to cancel June third stuff.

"Right," Jess said, his voice dripping with skepticism. "She probably only suggested it because she thought that's what you wanted."

"Has the thought ever crossed your mind that maybe she wanted to postpone the wedding because she's not ready to get married? I mean, she did bolt on her ex-fiancé right before the wedding."

"You know what? Forget what I said about giving you those books next week."

"Thank you," Luke said thinking he'd won. "I know what I'm doing. I don't need them."

"Yes, you do and you need them now. That's why I'm not going to wait until next week. I'm going to FedEx them to you as soon as we get off the phone. You need to reread them ASAP or you're going to lose Lorelai just like I lost Rory."

"You're crazy! I'm not going to lose Lorelai the way you lost Rory. You lost Rory because you kept her out of the most important parts of your life."

"That's exactly my point, Luke. You're keeping Lorelai away from your kid and that's a pretty important part of your life. Do you honestly think that she's going to just wait around and be happy with being your fiancée forever?"

"What are you saying? You think that Lorelai doesn't want to marry me at all? For God's sake, she's the one who proposed to me."

"What I'm saying is that 'fiancée' is supposed to a temporary title. It's supposed to lead to 'wife.' If you don't do something about that soon, she'll be gone before you even realize it's happened. The worst thing about it is that she'll never tell you how she's feeling because she'll be afraid of putting too much pressure on you, especially considering the last time she pushed you, you dumped her."

Luke pondered what Jess had just said, realizing that he was right. He was too wrapped up in his own little world to realize that he was hurting the person he loved the most. "So, what do you suggest I do?"

"For starters, talk to your fiancée. Suggest a new wedding date to her, or go back to the original one. It doesn't really matter. Just do something to let her know that you're serious about marrying her."

"This would be the time to let my actions speak, like the book said, huh?"

Jess chuckled at his uncle's cluelessness. "Yeah, that'd be a good start. You know, it's too late for me to fix what I screwed up with Rory, but it's not too late for you and Lorelai. After all those years of pining for her, you've finally got her, but if you want to keep you're going to have to do something major."

"I was _not _pining."

"Oh, Please! You were pining for Lorelai when you were married to Nicole. That's why you were never committed to really moving in with her or building a life with her. Everyone could see it except you. Even Nicole saw it. Why do you think she cheated?"

"Are you saying that it's my fault that my wife cheated? That I deserved that?"

"No, I'm not saying that and I'm not saying that what she did was right, but maybe she was looking for something that you couldn't give her. "

"Maybe it's time I moved the rest of my stuff over to her place. That'd be a major thing that would show her I'm serious, right?"

"Wait a minute! You still haven't moved in with her? The remodeling has been done for months. This is your screw-up with Nicole all over again. You're even dumber than I thought."

"I'm dumb because I haven't moved in yet? Do you have nay idea how much money I spent on the remodeling?"

"Big whoop! You spent all that money to make that place big enough for the two of you to share but it kinda loses the point if you don't share it and you keep on doing the 'your place or mine' bit. Let me again remind you, that that's where you screwed up with Nicole."

"Would you stop bringing up Nicole? That is in the past and has nothing to do with my situation with Lorelai. Besides, I don't even know if Lorelai still wants me to move in anymore. She got all bent out of shape over the fact that I didn't want to go luggage shopping for this trip."

"Of course, she did. She's thinking that you're eventually gonna' need luggage for your honeymoon, which apparently has been cancelled. She's probably thinking that shopping for luggage will get you guys talking about your future plans again."

"This is a big thing and it could affect my visitation with April if Anna finds out I'm living with my fiancée."

"Why are you letting Anna call all the shots here? She did that for years by never telling you that you had a kid. You're her father and you've got rights, rights that Anna deprived you of for twelve years. Why aren't you fighting for them? April came looking for you. That must mean that she was missing something that Anna wasn't giving her. Whether you're living with Lorelai shouldn't matter. She's your kid, too. It's way past time that you stood up for yourself. It's not like you to just lie back and take it."

"You're right," Luke agreed. "What have I been so afraid of? She's my kid too. I guess I've been thinking that if I ask for too much too soon, Anna will just stop my visits with April altogether."

"If it comes to that, that's what custody lawyers were invented for."

"No. I don't want to get lawyers involved and drag April through all that. I just want to be able to be there for my kid."

"I'm just saying that if Anna is going to be uncooperative about you spending time with April that may be the next step to guarantee your rights are protected. If it comes down to it, family courts love it when fathers fight for their rights. Take it from someone whose dad never gave a crap whether I was dead or alive, it's a good thing that you want to be a part of April's life. I'm sure Rory would feel the same way considering her dad wasn't much better."

"You don't think that I'm just like Jimmy and Christopher? I mean, I missed out on the first twelve years of April's life. Doesn't that make me a deadbeat dad too?"

"No. You didn't know you even had a kid, but as soon as you did, you made an effort to be involved in her life. My dad and Rory's dad both knew they had kids and chose not to give a crap about it."

"I guess," Luke replied, but still not sure.

"Trust me. Listen, I need to get going, but think about what I said about everything and for crying out loud, make things right with Lorelai."

"I will. Thanks, Kid."

Luke hung up the phone and sat down thinking about everything that Jess had said. Staring at his closet with most of his clothes still in it, he realized that he'd been right. He and Lorelai were in a committed relationship. It was time to show her that he was still all in. He stood up and started yanking stuff out of the closet preparing to transport it over to Lorelai's house. _Correction, our house, _he thought. That was the plan all along. As he finished emptying his closet, it occurred to him that he has another way of showing Lorelai that he was serious.

Luke walked over to the safe, opened it and pulled out the ring box that had been sitting in there for months. He opened the box and stared the wedding bands that he'd ordered back in October before they'd even set a wedding date. He'd been so excited about marrying the woman he loved, he acted a little impulsively at the time, but he'd never shown them to her. He meant to, but the time was never right. She'd been upset after Rory's birthday party, then they'd had that huge fight about Christopher calling, then he'd found out about April and the rings had sat in the safe forgotten until now. He took his ring out of the box and slid it on his finger. He knew it was supposed to be some kind of bad luck to wear your wedding ring before you were actually married, but he just wanted to see how it felt. He'd never worn one when he was married to Nicole. He looked down at his left hand and thought he could get used to seeing that ring sitting there. He made a fist and released it, thinking he could definitely get used to the feel of it. He took it off, put it back in the box and picked up its mate, trying to imagine it on Lorelai's finger right next to her perfect engagement ring, a symbol that she belonged to him. He smiled. He was starting to like the thought. He put her ring back in the box and slipped the box in his pocket.

He closed the safe and locked it, then walked over to the bed where he'd dumped the clothes from the closet. He took a look around the place and realized that he'd need some boxes to pack up the rest of his stuff, but for now, moving his clothing and a few persona l items would have to be enough until he could really take the time to pack up the rest of the place. Lorelai would get what he was trying to say with the gesture. He hoped.

TBC


	2. Chapter 2

Author's note: Thanks for all the great reviews. I already know pretty much where I want to take this story. It just may take me a while to get there and get Luke and Lorelai to their happy ending. There will be some fights first since we all know how stubborn both characters are, but I promise, they'll get there.

Just another quick note on how long L/L had known each other. Since the show writers couldn't seem to make up their minds how long they had known each. I decided to use the idea from WBB that Luke had known Rory when she was ten and running around in angel wings for the caterpillar's funeral, not the eight year timeline in WITS, just wanted to let you all know, so there's no confusion. Thanks for reading!

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

After putting his stuff away in his new home, Luke stood nervously outside Anna's door, dreading what was to come when she answered the door. He didn't want to argue with her about their situation, but Jess had made a good point. April was his daughter too and he had rights. He wanted his daughter to be a part of his life and his life included Lorelai. Anna would just have to deal with it. He just hoped that Anna wouldn't try to take away what little contact he had with April. He didn't want this to turn into a messy court battle with her stuck in the middle.

"Luke?" Anna's voice pulled him out of his head. He had been so lost in thought that he hadn't even heard her open the door. "Did you and April make plans that I didn't know about? Because if you did, she must have forgotten. She's with her math team practicing for the competition."

"No. Actually, I came to see you." He took a deep breath and continued. "There's some stuff regarding April that I wanted to talk to you about. Really, it's more about me and my future plans, but it involves April so I thought it was time I came and talked to you."

"This wouldn't happen to be about your fiancée, would it?"

"Lorelai? How do you know anything about her?"

"I don't really know anything about her. April just told me that you were engaged. I didn't even know her name until you just said it. Why don't you come inside so we can talk about it?"

"Yeah, sure," He replied and followed her into the house. "So, how does April know that I'm engaged?"

"You live in a teeny tiny town. Luke. Plus, April is a very observant girl. She noticed the tension between you and some woman the first day she went to the diner to see you. She also noticed the diamond ring the woman was wearing and put two and two together. She's good at that, hence the math competition."

Luke chuckled at Anna's attempt at lightening the mood with humor.

"To tell the truth, Luke," Anna continued, "Her feelings were a little hurt that you hadn't said anything yourself."

"I wanted to, but she didn't even know me at all. She was just getting used to the idea of me being her father. Hell, I was just getting used to the idea. I didn't want to overwhelm her with the idea of a future step-mother as well." As soon as he said the words, it really hit him how unfair he'd been to Lorelai. She was going to be April's step-mother and yet, he hadn't even formally introduced the two of them.

"I get that. I'm even worse, I guess, never telling her who her father was. I should've told you sooner too, but I was just scared. I didn't know how you'd react to it."

"You never gave me the chance."

"I know, and that was unfair. You've missed out on so much."

"Not by my choice."

"So, I'm guessing the reason you're here is that you want my blessing for April to start getting to know your fiancée?'

"Her name is Lorelai," Luke stated, getting annoyed, "And Yes. That's why I'm here."

Anna folded her arms across her chest and glared at Luke. "I'm not sure how I feel about this. I don't even know this woman. I don't feel entirely comfortable with my kid hanging out with someone I don't know, especially since I know your track record when it comes to relationships."

"In case you've forgotten, April is _my _kid, too," Luke had moved past annoyed and was now getting angry. "And as for my past relationships, none of them has anything to do with my present one. Lorelai isn't just some woman I picked up off the street. We are in a deeply committed relationship. We have known each other for more than ten years, we've been together for two and we've been engaged for almost a year, plus we live together. That's a pretty big thing for me." Luke felt a little guilty for stretching the truth a bit. Technically, He and Lorelai didn't live together yet, but they were getting closer. Besides, he needed Anna to realize how serious he was.

"So the wedding is planned, date set and everything?"

"What has that got to do with anything?"

"Just as I thought. You _say_ you're committed to this woman, but you haven't set a wedding date or made any plans and you've been engaged almost a year."

"For your information plans _have _been made!" He snapped. "You wanna know the wedding date? It's June third, ok? June third!" He didn't know what made him blurt it out like that when he knew that Lorelai had already cancelled most of their wedding plans. He just couldn't take Anna's snide comments anymore. "And her name is Lorelai!"

"June third? That's only two months away."

"I know it is, he said. Now that he'd said it he knew it was too late to take it back without losing face so he decided to just go with it. "Why do you think I'm here? I'd like my kid and my future wife to get to know each other before the wedding, rather than just waiting until we're married and saying to April, 'Oh, by the way, you've got a stepmom now!'"

"I get that, but you coming here and screaming at me doesn't make me feel any better about this whole thing. In fact, with your temper I'm thinking maybe you shouldn't go on this trip with April after all. "

"What?!" Luke was shocked. "April and I have already made plans for what we're going to do on her off-time while we're there."

"Well, I'm unmaking them! You will not shout at me like that and expect to still hang out with my kid. I'm her mother and I won't allow it!"

"You won't _allow _it?! I've got a news flash for you. If I wanna hang with my kid I will and you won't stop me. I'm her father and I've got rights! If I have to fight for her, I will. I don't care what it takes!" With that said Luke walked out the door and slammed it behind him.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Lorelai shook her head at all the crazy dishes that Sookie had brought. "Wait, Sookie, what is all this stuff? "

"What?" Sookie questioned. "I made your favorites!"

"But my parents aren't going to eat any of this."

"Your parents? I thought this was for you!"

"You thought I wanted to sit by myself and eat an entire buffet of the world's most fattening foods?"

"I don't know. I figured it was just one of your cravings, or maybe just a fun way to announce that you're pregnant?"

"What?" Lorelai was startled by this. _Did she know? No, that's crazy. How could she possibly know? I just found out myself today. Oh God, has everyone else figured it out too? Does Rory know too? _Lorelai mentally kicked herself. She's was being a little nuts and she knew it. She was the only one that knew and she's made sure that she threw the test out while Luke was carrying the spiders outside so that he wouldn't find it by accident. _No, _she assured herself. _My secret's still safe._

"Well, you were saying something about being a sudden parent or expecting or due soon – it's impossible to hear anything over that damn Cuisinart and all of those gossiping bus boys! You're not pregnant."

"No, I'm _expecting_ my parents over any minute." This was true. Her parents were on their way.

"Oh. Yeah, that makes sense too."

"It's okay. We'll make do." Sookie kept looking at her hopefully. "I'm not pregnant!" Lorelai felt a pang of guilt for lying to her best friend, but what else could she do? She hadn't even told Luke yet and he was the kid's father. She wanted to tell both her and Rory, but how could she? Luke had a right to be the first to know. It was his kid too. It really started to hit her. She and Luke were going to be parents. Together. At least she hoped it would be together. Things had been so strained between them that she found it hard to believe. They'd just have to figure out how to make it work. There were a couple of things she was sure of. One was that no matter what, they still loved each other. Another was that she knew Luke would never be the kind of guy who would bail on his kid, like Christopher numerous times when it came to Rory. She knew that without a doubt. She just wasn't sure how she fit into the equation. She didn't know if she had the strength in her to be a single mom again. She didn't want to go through that again. Granted, Rory had turned out ok, but she had struggled for years to make that happen. She believed though that a big part of that had to do with Luke. He'd been the only stable father figure that Rory had when she was growing up. She wanted that for this new baby too. She sighed and tried to shake off these thoughts, when she heard Sookie's voice ringing out.

"Okay! Okay." Sookie looked at her friend a little disappointed. She was so sure earlier at the inn that she'd seen a little something different in Lorelai. It was a look about her that had reminded her of when she's been expecting Martha. Maybe it was just wishful thinking. She wanted so much for Luke and Lorelai to be happy together. The whole town had waited so long to see them finally admit their feelings for each other. She thought once that had happened everything would be fine. She'd known for years that her best friend was in love with the grumpy diner owner whose ideas about cooking made her crazy. While they didn't agree on cooking, they did agree on one thing. They both loved Lorelai.

"Now, the food..." Lorelai began.

"Right, okay. The mini hot dogs can be bratwurst, the mac and cheese can be pasta à la Sookie, and presto, the taquitos are bellinis."

"And the chili fries?"

"Are chili fries."

"Right." The chili fries brought back thoughts of Luke and how many times he'd served her chili fires and groused about her poor eating habits while still giving her what she wanted to make her happy. She wanted that guy back. The one who sacrificed his own happiness for hers, not that she wanted Luke not to be happy. She wanted _them _to be happy. She ached for them to be a real family. She, Luke, Rory, April and the new baby had a good chance at family togetherness if only Luke would let her in. Lorelai already considered April part of her family, even though she'd spent minimal time with her, because she was part of the man she loved and she'd considered Luke part of the family for a long time. She just hoped that he still felt the same about her.


	3. Chapter 3

Author's note: I'm so excited that all of you are enjoying this story. I didn't even have the second chapter posted for ten minutes when I got an alert that it had been reviewed. I greatly appreciate all the positive feedback. I'm working on updating as fast as I can with working a full time job and bowling in two leagues and spending time with my hubby. I have a lot of ideas for where to take this and am overworking my poor computer to get them down. For this chapter, I wanted to go a little more into detail on what caused Sookie's assumption that Lorelai was pregnant, so, I'll be taking just a little step backwards in time to earlier in the day. Please bear with me on this as it will be relevant later when I finally have L/L working on their issues. Also, sorry for the shortness of this chapter. I've aready started on chapter four and will have it posted hopefully either tonight when I get home from work or sometime tomorrow since it's my day off. Thanks again.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Sookie St James-Bellville stood in the kitchen of the Dragonfly cooking frantically after Lorelai had called, desperately demanding food. She heard Lorelai say something about "expecting" and was so excited that Lorelai and Luke may finally get their middle. She was lost in her thoughts, happily stirring the chili, when a tap on her shoulder startled her and caused her to drop her spoon. She turned to see who was there.

"Jesus, Luke! I didn't hear you come in. Make a noise or something."

"Sorry," he said sheepishly. "I didn't mean to scare you."

"It's ok. I just wasn't expecting to see you here. That's all. I figured you'd be with Lorelai." She said this with a smile, thinking that anytime now they'd be making new wedding plans.

"I going to see her later, but I actually came here to talk to you."

"About what?" she inquired.

"About the wedding stuff you and Lorelai had planned. I need to know what stuff's been cancelled and what hasn't. I'm guessing you know that stuff just as well as Lorelai does since you did it all together." His fight with Anna hadn't dampened his determination to make things right with Lorelai. In fact, it had strengthened his resolve. If her was going to have to fight6 Anna for his paternal rights, he was going to need Lorelai's support.

"Yeah, I've actually got a whole notebook full of info on it, but why are you asking me about it? Why don't you just talk to Lorelai?"

"Well, I'm trying to surprise her. I've been a big idiot. I screwed everything up with her and I want to make it right. I want to get our wedding plans back on track."

"Eeeeee!" Sookie squealed with delight as she grabbed Luke in a fierce hug. "I'm so happy to hear that! You wait right there. I'll just go grab my notebook!"

Sookie bounced off to the pantry and left Luke standing there shaking his head. He reached down and picked up the spoon he had caused her to drop. Sookie came rushing back into the room, clutching a big notebook to her chest.

"Ok, "she began. "First thing I need to know is when the new date is."

"There is no new date, Sookie."

Sookie's face fell. "Then what's this all about. I thought you said you wanted to get your wedding plans back on track. Don't you still want to marry her? Let me tell you something, Buddy, Lorelai is my best friend in the world and if you hurt her in any way, keep in mind that I've got a whole lot of very sharp knives in this kitchen and I know how to use them!"

"Yikes!" Luke cringed, thinking of all the damage that Sookie could do with a knife as accident-prone as she was.

"That's right, yikes!" Sookie said with a defiant nod of her head. Lorelai's like a sister to me and I won't let anyone, even you, hurt her. I think you'd better get with the program and set a new date especially under the circumstances." Sookie had noticed that Lorelai had been going to the bathroom a lot more lately and once thought she heard her throwing up in there. Plus she had that glowy skin thing that pregnant women often had. She hadn't asked her about it yet, figuring she's announce it in her own Lorelai way when she was ready to. Although it did bug her a little bit that her best friend hadn't confided in her about something this big.

"What circumstances? Do you know something I don't know?" He asked in a panic. _Was Jess wrong? Is it already too late? Is Lorelai already planning on leaving me? _

"Er," Sookie hesitated as it dawned on her that the reason Lorelai hadn't said anything to her was that Luke didn't know yet. _Why didn't Luke know yet? _She had to come up with something to tell him without spilling the beans. Something like this should come from Lorelai. "I, um, I just meant that you know, you guys have been engaged for a while now. It's way past time to make it official and that means setting a new wedding date."

Oh," he breathed a sigh of relief, feeling like he'd just dodged a bullet. "That's why I'm here. I know it's way past time, but I don't want to set a new date. I want to make new plans for the original date."

"Great! That is _so _great!" Sookie reverted back to her usual chipper self. "But there may be a problem."

"What problem, Sookie? Whatever it is, we'll make it work."

Well, most of this stuff is still salvageable, but the caterer and the church aren't. When Lorelai cancelled them, both of them booked other events for the same day. The thing is with losing the church that also means we lost the reception hall since they were part of the same deal."

"We can work around that."

"Great! How?"

"Simple," Luke stated. "You'll do the catering and I already have an idea for the new location, but it will take some major sucking up to Taylor."

"Really? You'd be willing to suck up to Taylor to get this done? You really are determined."

"Yes, I really am"

"Determined enough to even let me do the catering? You hate my cooking."

"I don't hate your cooking, Sookie. I just don't like it when you walk into my diner and try to revamp my whole menu. I happen to like the diner's menu just the way it is."

"I know, but if you could just-"

"Stop right there, Sookie. Do not even think of finishing that sentence if you want me to trust you with catering y wedding."

"You got it!" she said, although she really wanted to tell him all the ways he could improve on his already existing menu. "Now, let's get to work on getting you married!"

"All right," he said. "What do we need to do first?" He couldn't believe he was asking Sookie of all people for help, but desperate times called for desperate measures. He sighed as he resigned himself to the fact that he was going to have to let Sookie have control if he wanted to fix things.


	4. Chapter 4

Lorelai followed her parents upstairs trying in vain to remember if t here was anything in her bedroom that would lead to a parade of judgment from her overly critical mother.

"This room is amazing!" Emily exclaimed as Lorelai walked into the room. "I can't believe how much space you've been able to add in here."

"Well, Luke's a big guy. He needs space and my old room was just too cramped for the two of us."

"Is he living here now?" Emily asked eyebrows raised in typical Emily Gilmore fashion.

"Mom!" Lorelai said in exasperation at her mother. She hadn't been there ten minutes and was already butting into her personal life.

"What? Your wedding date is only two months away. I would expect with all the work you've done, you would have let him move in by now, but I guess you're just too set in your ways. You're going to drive him away if you don't let him in, just like you have driven away every other man in your life."

Lorelai scoffed at her mother's snide comments. If only she knew. "I'm sure it would thrill to no end if Luke and I broke up, wouldn't it?"

"Now, wait a minute before this gets out of hand," Richard interjected. Watching his wife and daughter he sensed what was about to happen if he didn't step in. "Emily, has it occurred to you that maybe Lorelai doesn't feel the need to share all the personal details of her relationship with Luke? If you recall, you weren't exactly thrilled with the match when you first found out about it."

"I just asked a simple question. A think a mother has a right to know if her daughter is living with a man. What if I call her up and he answers the phone? I don't want to be surprised by something like that, do I?

"Well, we didn't come here to delve into every intimate detail of her personal life. We came to visit and to see the remodeling that's been done on the house. Now, if you'll excuse me, I think I've seen enough of the bedroom. I'm going downstairs to keep Rory company."

"You're right." Emily conceded. She resigned herself to the fact that her only daughter was never going to willingly share any information about her life. She turned to Lorelai. "You said you did the closet too, didn't you?" Not waiting for an answer Emily walked into the much bigger closet. "Oh my! You're closet's twice the size it was!"

"Yeah, it is," Lorelai said sadly. She had a closet big enough for two, but only being used by one.

Emily continued looking through the closet and looked at the long row of flannel shirts hanging next to Lorelai's dresses and moved to take a closer look and saw that Luke did have more in his wardrobe than that. She saw the gray suit she'd seen him in several times, along with two others, some dress shirts and a few sweaters.

"Well, you don't seem to want to admit that Luke lives here, but he certainly has a lot of clothing in your closet if he doesn't."

"He doesn't have that much stuff in there," Lorelai said, her patience with her mother wearing thin already. She stepped into the closet behind her mother ad gasped at the sight. Luke's whole closet from the apartment was in there next to her clothes. She wondered when he'd done this, when she suddenly remembered that she hadn't seen any sign of the cricket she'd asked him to take care of when she'd come home from the inn.

"It certainly seems like he does." She turned toward Lorelai. "Surely, he doesn't have more clothes than this. I mean, who is he, Elton John?"

Lorelai laughed at the image that formed in her head of Luke wearing wigs or sequins. "No, Mom. He's not Elton John. I guess he must have moved more of his stuff over while I was at the inn."

"Oh," Emily replied. She turned back toward the closet and noticed the garment bag hanging on Lorelai's side of it. She picked it up. "Lorelai, what's this?"

"It's my wedding dress," she sighed thinking that she'd never get to where her perfect dress to marry who she thought had been her perfect guy. _He did move his stuff over here or at least some of it. Maybe that means he's coming around, _she smiled a little at the hope that thought had produced.

Emily turned back toward her daughter. "You've got your dress done already?"

"Yes, Mom. As you pointed out, June third is only two months away."

"I know that. I imagined that with the wedding this close you would have picked out your dress, but with fittings and alterations, I had no idea you'd have it ready to wear already."

"The dress was already the perfect size for me when I bought it. I didn't need any fittings or alterations." As she heard the words come out of her mouth, it hit that by the time her wedding day came around, her dress _would _need to be altered, especially if Luke kept dragging his feet. She placed her hand on her still flat stomach thinking about the tiny life growing inside her and her flashed back to when she was pregnant with Rory and her coming out dress no longer fit.

"Nonsense!" Emily declared, taking no notice of Lorelai's subtle movement. " No dress is ever the perfect size right off the rack."

"Well, this one was"

"Show me!" she demanded, thrusting the garment bag toward Lorelai.

"What?"

"I said show me. If this dress fits so perfectly, I want to see it. I don't want to see you making a fool of yourself on your wedding day because you were too stubborn to take the time to have it fitted properly."

"Mom, this is hardly the time for a fashion show."

"Lorelai, for once, can't you just humor your mother. I want to see you try on your wedding dress." She again tried to hand the bag to her and softened her tone a little. "Please?"

"Yeah, ok." Lorelai said taking the bag from her mother. "I'll try it on. I'll be right back" She walked into the bathroom and began changing and started thinking again about her situation. The truth is when she'd first gotten the dress, she wanted to try it on all the time, but since the wedding had been postponed she couldn't even stand to look at it anymore because it reminded her too much of what she had lost. _Stop it, Lorelai, s_he scolded herself. _You haven't lost him yet. He did move more of his stuff over so he's at least making an effort to fix things. _

Emily looked around the room while Lorelai was changing. She walked over to the nightstand on the left side of the bed and looked at a large vase full of yellow daisies sitting there and picked up the card that was with them and read the three simple words scrawled on it. _I love you. _Luke must have bought these for Lorelai. Daisies were her favorite flower. She replaced the card and made her way over to the dresser to take a closer look at a framed photograph that she'd seen adorning its surface. She picked it up and looked at it. It was a picture of Luke wearing a suit and tie and Lorelai in a pink dress with a wreath of flowers in her hair. She wondered if it had been taken at one of Stars Hollow's many themed festivals. She continued to stare at it. In the photo, Luke had his arm across Lorelai's shoulders and she was leaning her head on his. They looked so happy. Emily smiled a little. All she'd ever wanted for Lorelai was her happiness. She realized now how foolish she'd been for trying to split them up and was grateful that they had been able to overcome her meddling. She'd never really liked Christopher, but she'd always thought he, Lorelai and Rory should have been a real family. She'd come to the conclusion recently that Christopher was much too juvenile for her daughter and that she had long ago outgrown him. It occurred to her that until Luke came along, Lorelai had never been truly in love, not even with Christopher. Certainly not with Jason or that teacher she almost married. She just hoped with all her heart that Luke would continue to make her as happy as she appeared to be in this picture. She placed it back on the dresser and resumed her inspection of the room.

As she finished zipping up her dress, Lorelai wondered how hard it would be to add a little Spandex to it in case she needed it on her wedding day. She giggles a little at the thought. She really was happy about the baby, but she was also worried. She just wanted things to work out. "Ok, I'm coming out now!" she called to her mother as she stepped out of the bathroom to find her mother had moved on to examining the new furniture.

Emily turned to her daughter and took in a breath at the sight before her.

"So, what do you think?" Lorelai asked not really sure she wanted to hear the answer.

"I think you're going to be a beautiful bride. Turn around. I want to see the back."

Lorelai turned not knowing what her mother was up to. Emily reached for the bow on the back of the sash and tugged on it a little to straighten it. She stood there a moment taking in Lorelai's whole appearance from her bare shoulders to her tiny waist still feeling like something was a little off, though she'd given her daughter her honest opinion. She _did _look beautiful. She's wanted to see her only daughter be a bride for years, not just because she had wanted to have the big society wedding, but because she wanted to know that she would be loved and taken care of after she was gone. Not that Lorelai needed anyone to take care of her. She was very skilled at taking caring of herself. She just wanted her to be happy and as much as she hated to admit it, from what she'd observed, Luke made her happy. She still wasn't sure how she felt about that, but maybe it was good that she was marrying someone who had been a good friend first. She'd always heard that the best marriages were the ones rooted in friendship, though she's had no real firsthand experience with that. She and Richard were the best of friends now, but at the beginning of their time together, their relationship and been fiery and passionate. After all, she's stolen him from another woman. As she stood there scrutinizing every detail of the dress Lorelai had chosen to wear on the day she married her best friend, she realized what was off and it wasn't the dress. "Lorelai, are you hips a little wider than they used to be?" Emily asked.

"Mom!"

"You're pregnant," Emily stated matter-of-factly. She was reminded of that other day so long ago seeing Lorelai in her the dress she's bought for her coming out party and trying to get it zipped, not knowing at the time that her almost-sixteen year old daughter was pregnant. She felt completely stupid. After her experience more than two decades ago, how could she have missed it this time? Her eyes misted over with unshed tears. She was going to be a grandmother again and Lorelai hadn't told her.

Lorelai spun around to face her mother. "No, no, I'm not.' She stammered.

"That wasn't a question."

Lorelai hung her head, knowing that she couldn't lie to her mother. She desperately needed to talk to someone, but she wasn't sure she could do it with Emily so she put up her usual defense mechanism. You're right, Mom. I let Luke knock me up. So go ahead and let the judgment begin!" She walked over and flopped down on the bed.

Emily sat down next to Lorelai. "For you information, I wasn't going to say anything judgmental."

Lorelai rolled her eyes at her mother. "Really, because you had that patented Emily Gilmore judgmental look on your face."

"You think you know so much about me, but you don't know nearly as much as you think you do. That wasn't a judgmental look. That was a hurt look. Why didn't you tell me? Do I mean so little to you that you didn't think I had a right to know that I'm going to have another grandchild?"

"No, Mom, It's not that. It's just that I haven't told Luke yet. He doesn't even know that he's going to be a father again."

"Why on earth haven't you told him? He has a right to know about this and you keeping it from him makes you just as bad as that horrible woman who never bothered to tell him that he had a daughter!"

"Well, it's not like I planned on keeping it from him for twelve years like Anna did. I only found out for sure this morning, although I have suspected it for a couple of weeks. No," she corrected. She had to start being honest with herself, if she was going to be honest with Luke. "Longer than that. It's actually been more like a month. I just didn't want to believe it, so I tried to convince myself that it wasn't true."

"Surely, as long as you and Luke have been together combined with the fact that you're planning a wedding, you've talked about the possibility of having children."

"We have," Lorelai agreed, "But that was almost a year ago when we first got engaged. At the times we both agreed that we wanted kids, but we haven't talked about it since he found out about April. I don't even know if he still wants to have kids with me, now that he has her. He spends so much time with her without me; I can't help but feel that he won't be as happy as I am about this baby."

"Right, because you're radiating happiness at the moment," her mother said in her most sarcastic voice.

"I _am _happy about this baby, but it's the timing of it that sucks. Did I ever tell you that I had a pregnancy scare last year?"

"You hardly ever tell me anything about your life, Lorelai," she replied sadly.

"Well, I did. It was shortly before that big magazine article on the Dragonfly came out. The magazine threw me a big party in New York and we were all caught up in the celebrating, drinking way too much, but generally having a good time. When ended up making love three times that night and sue to the drunkenness, no precautions were taken whatsoever. It turned out to be a false alarm, obviously or I'd have had another kid by now. I didn't tell Luke about it at the time because at that point, we hadn't really talked about kids or are future and I wasn't sure what he would think of the possibility. What I didn't know then was that even though we hadn't talked about it, he was thinking about it and making plans for our future. He'd been busting his ass trying to buy me a house to fill with kids. I found all this out about two weeks later, the night that we got engaged."

"He tried to buy you a house?"

"Truthfully, he _did _buy the house, and then when he thought I might take that offer from Mike Armstrong to sell the inn and work for him, he panicked, thinking I did want the same thing and backed out of the deal. He was going to buy it again, but when he realized that I loved this house and wanted to stay here, he took the money he was going to spend on the down spend on the down payment and used it to make this place big enough for us to share."

Emily looked around the room. "Luke paid for all of this?"

Lorelai nodded. "He insisted on it. He paid for the contractor, the painters, the new furniture, everything."

"I didn't know Luke had that much money at his disposal."

"Please! The man has lived liked a hermit for the last fifteen years. He hardly ever spends any money unless it's on stuff for the diner. He very rarely spends money on himself, unless it's for something that he really needs. That's how he was able to just write me a check for thirty thousand dollars without batting an eye when I was struggling to open the inn."

"I didn't realize that he'd done that."

"He did. I figured you already knew since you knew all about his real estate holdings. The Dragonfly's success couldn't have happened without him. He even took over in the kitchen once, when Sookie was on maternity leave and got rave reviews from our guests. I was so proud of him. I still am in fact. He built a successful business and kept it running for more than fifteen years. Do you know how amazing that is? With fast food places popping up all over, small town restaurants go belly up all the time, yet the diner busier than ever. "

Emily pondered that for a moment after hearing the pride in her daughter's voice when talking about Luke's business. "If things are so great, why haven't you told him that you're pregnant?"

"I'm not sure how to bring up the subject. Things have been a little strained between us over him spending so much time with April and not really including me in it. He's so wrapped up in her right now that I feel sometimes like I've been cast aside.

"You make it sound as if he's involved with another woman. I think it's a good thing that he's making time to get to know his child."

"I do too. I admire him for trying, but I think he's trying to make up for twelve years of lost time by forgetting about everything else."

"I hardly think he's forgotten about you. That man has been in love with you for years and there are fresh flowers on your nightstand that tell me he's thinking about you."

"What flowers?"

"The only flowers on the nightstand."

Lorelai stood up and like Emily had done earlier picked up and read the card. She smiled."Yellow daisies. He knows they're my favorite."

Emily stood up and looked at Lorelai. "See?" she said, gesturing toward the flowers. Would a man who's forgotten about you take the time to buy you your favorite flower?"

"I guess not.' She set the card down and turned toward her mother. She was a little surprised that Emily Gilmore of all people was the one who was actually helping her to feel better about this whole situation. "Um, Mom?" she hesitated. "About the stuff we've been discussing…" She hesitated again.

"I won't say a word, Lorelai, but you'd better tell Luke soon. Now, go on and get out of that dress before you get it all wrinkled. I'll be downstairs with Rory and your father." Emily left the room and went to join her husband and granddaughter.

_And she's back, _Lorelai thought as she skipped off to the bathroom change, her heart feeling about a thousand pounds lighter than it had this morning.

TBC


	5. Chapter 5

"So, Lorelai. A new dog, a new bedroom, a new bathroom. It's like a whole new house." Emily said.

"Except that it's the same house," Lorelai replied wondering if her mother would keep her word and keep her mouth shut about her impending motherhood.

"It doesn't look the same. It's lucky we had your address. We would have driven right by."

"Well, I was waiting until it was all done to show you!" She started thinking that this brittle exterior of Emily's was just her way of covering up her hurt feelings. She'd noticed a slight change in her mother during their brief bonding moment upstairs.

"'All done? There's more that you're doing?" Emily queried with a pointed look toward Lorelai. She was thinking that even with the extensive remodelling that had been done, her daughter and future son-in-law would need more space with a baby on the way.

As if reading her mother's thoughts, Lorelai tried to cover. "Oh, yeah! The mailbox is crooked, and I was going to plant a bush in the yard." Her mother had gotten her thinking again. While the remodelling had created plenty of space for her and Luke, there was no way there was enough space for a baby. She supposed they could clean out the attic and make some more space up there, though it wouldn't be very convenient when the baby woke up in the middle of the night. She'd have to talk to Luke about it. He knew some stuff about architecture. He'd probably have some ideas. First, she'd have to work up the courage to tell him she was pregnant.

"Forgive me. I had no idea such a stunning makeover was ahead of me. I feel terribly involved."

Their conversation was interrupted by a key in the door. Luke walked in and dropped his keys on the entry table. "Lorelai?" he called.

"We're in the kitchen!" she called back. Luke walked in and stopped in his tracks when he saw that Emily and Richard were there.

"Hi," he said, feeling a little awkward. He'd never really felt comfortable around his future in-laws. He knew they didn't approve of their daughter being involved with him.

"Hello, Luke," Emily replied, taking in his appearance. He was wearing what he typically wore, flannel shirt, jeans and his ever-present backwards baseball cap. She'd noticed looking at the closet that this type of outfit encompassed most of his wardrobe. _This is the father of my unborn grandchild. I should really get to know him better. He's going to be a permanent part of the family now. Maybe i should ask him sometime why he wears what he does. He'd probably take offense to it though, just like Lorelai does when she just asked simple questions, trying to be a bigger part of her daughter's life. _She recalled how quickly Lorelai had jumped down her throat earlier when she'd asked if Luke was living there. She had hope that their conversation earlier was a sign of things to come. Lorelai had never volunteered that much personal information before. She turned back to Lorelai. "So I'm guessing all this means that you and Luke will be staying?"

"Staying?" Lorelai asked, not sure what her mother was getting at.

"In Stars Hollow."

"Mom, I've lived in Stars Hollow for twenty-one years and Luke has lived here for forty years."

"Hey!" Luke cut in. "I'm not forty yet. Don't make me older than I am. I've still got seven more months until I turn forty."

"You know, you can live somewhere your entire life and never truly feel at home, Lorelai." Richard interjected.

"Well, I do. I feel at home here. Mostly because it is my home, and has been for twenty-one years and it's been Luke's home for _thirty-nine _years." Lorelai replied.

"Yes, well."

"This house does have a certain charm. It feels very homey. I can see you and Luke here." _But only if they add on another room. _

After a moment Lorelai said, "Wow. Thank you, Mom. She was touched that there was still a little of the supportive mother she's seen in her room earlier.

"So, Luke," Richard began. "How's business at the diner?"

"It's good, "Luke answered. "It still pays the bills."

"Good, good. Glad to hear it."

Lorelai looked at Luke still standing there awkwardly and felt the need to do something to break the tension in the room. "Are you hungry, Hon? There's plenty of food here."

"I see that. I'm guessing Sookie did all this." He said gesturing to the food-laden table, knowing the answer before he said it, but he wasn't ready yet to tell Lorelai about what he and Sookie had been up to. He wanted to wait until they were alone to talk to her about. He knew that she hadn't told her parents that the wedding had been postponed and he didn't want to embarrass her in front of them or give yet another reason to hate him.

"Why would you guess that? Are you insinuating that I can't cook?" She put on her best pouting face in mock annoyance, trying to lighten the mood a little.

"You _can't _cook."

"I am deeply offended by that comment!" She playfully slapped him on the arm. "I'll have you know I have cooked many delicious things over the years."

"Dropping Pop-Tarts into a toaster does _not _constitute cooking." Everyone, but Lorelai laughed at this comment.

"He's got a point. Mom," Rory chimed in.

She looked at her daughter with look of mock horror on her face. "Whose side are you on?"

"I'm on the side of the man who's kept us fed for more than a decade and made me s'mores today without me even asking for them."

"Thanks, Rory." Luke beamed. "I just thought you looked like you could use some comfort food."

"You were right and s'mores are great comfort food. I appreciate it."

"Anytime, Kid.

"So, "Lorelai began again. "You never did answer me. Are you hungry?"

"For Sookie's cooking? No thanks."

"Oh, come on! You like Sookie's cooking just fine. You've eaten it many times when we've been over at her and Jackson's place for dinner."

"Yeah, and she's eaten my food when we've had them over here, but this is a principle thing. I'm not easting her food in our home. _I'm _the cook around here."

Lorelai smiled at his use of the word 'our' when describing the house. That was the first time he'd ever done that. "And you're a damn fine one at that. I just can't believe the two of you still have this professional rivalry thing going on after all these years."

"Professional rivalry?" Richard questioned. "They prepare very different types of food in two very different types of restaurants. Why would there be professional rivalry between them?"

"It's been going on for about nine years, right, Luke?"

"Yeah, that sounds about right, "he replied. "Ever since the first time you brought Sookie into the diner the first time and she started telling me what I needed to do to improve my cooking. As if I needed her to tell me that. I may not have not to culinary school like she did, but my mother started teaching me to cook when I was five years old and then when she died when I was ten, it fell to me to do the cooking for me, Liz and my dad. My dad sure as hell didn't know how to cook. Plus, I've been running my place the same way for more than fifteen years and I've never gone bankrupt yet."

"Ooh, remember last year when you subbed for her at the Dragonfly when she was put on bed rest and she wouldn't stop pestering you about what you put in the lamb chops?"

"She still won't give up on that either. I keep telling her no and she keeps on coming at me."

"Yeah, she's like the energizer bunny sometimes."

"I did offer her an exchange once, but she wouldn't agree to it. I wanted her lasagne recipe, and then she said she's only give it to me if I gave her the recipe for the caramel sauce I use on my turtle cheesecake."

"That's probably your best dessert by far, Luke," Rory said.

"Well, it's definitely the biggest selling dessert on my menu."

"And with good reason. You make excellent pies, too. Ooh, And brownies. " Rory remembered the care package full of triple chocolate brownies he'd sent her after the disastrous double date with her and Dean. It had been his way of apologizing for being an asshole toward Dean the whole night. In hindsight though, she'd come to realize that he'd been right all along and that he'd been looking out for her in the same fatherly way that he always had. She wished her own father would have even shown half as much interest in her life as Luke had. How many guys would bake a special coffee cake for a sixteen year old kid's birthday when it wasn't even for their kid? That had been long before he started dating her mom, too. She really wanted him to be her stepdad. She hoped that he and her mom could work out their differences and make it happen. They were obviously still very much in love with each other, but they were incredibly bull-headed opinionated people and neither liked to admit when they were wrong. She remembered the horrible fight they'd had when jess had wrecked her car. They didn't speak to each to each other for weeks. It had been painful to watch. She hoped that this situation wouldn't come to that.

"All true, "Lorelai agreed, "Still, you gotta admit, sometimes he and Sookie take their cooking feuds too far."

"That is _so _not true," Luke argued. "Just today, Sookie and I agreed to disagree on some things."

"You talked to Sookie today?"

_Crap! I just let the cat out of the bag too soon. Oh, well, I might as well go with it? _"Uh, yeah, we were talking a little about all the wedding plans you two had made. It hit me today that I really didn't have a lot of information, and June third is supposed to be my wedding day too. It's not like you've been exactly forthcoming with the details."

"June third?" Lorelai said the surprise evident on her face.

"Good Lord, Lorelai!" Emily exclaimed. "What's wrong with you? You act like you don't even know when your own wedding day is."

"No, I do! It's just that I didn't think Luke had that much of an interest in it. Wedding planning's more of a girly thing." She was trying frantically to cover her reaction to Luke's statement. She still couldn't bear the thought of telling her parents that they'd postponed the wedding. She didn't want to once again see that disappointment in their eyes that she had failed in yet another relationship.

"Well, I _do _have an interest." Luke stated firmly. I told you that that day you and Sookie were in the diner with all those wedding planning books spread out across two tables and the two of you just gave me the brush off as if it weren't my wedding too."

"I didn't mean to give you the brush off. It just never occurred to me that you'd want to be involved in all the giggly girlfest stuff like picking out invitations and floral arrangements."

"Believe me when I say that shopping for flowers is not on my list of fun ways to spend a Saturday afternoon, but I just thought when we got engaged that we'd plan our wedding together."

"Speaking of flowers, thanks for the daisies." She smiled as she reflected on the card. It amazed her that those three little words could lift her spirits so much, especially when she'd been feeling like crap all day.

"You're welcome. I know how much you love daisies."

"Daisies?" Rory questioned.

"Yeah, you didn't see them when you were upstairs earlier?"

"Oh, I saw them. I just didn't realize that they were from Luke." She smiled at Luke. "That's so sweet."

"Good show, Luke. A man should never stop doing little things like that for his lady no matter how long they'd been together," Richard added with a meaningful glance toward his wife of 41 years. He was grateful that he and Emily had gotten a second chance after their long and painful separation. He was determined now to never take her for granted again.

"He's absolutely right. A lady always appreciates a romantic gesture," She vividly recalled how much Lorelai's mood had improved when she's notices the flowers and read the card that accompanied them. She wasn't a fan of daisies herself, She preferred orchids, but she knew that Lorelai loved them and that made the gesture all the more heartfelt. While there were a great many things about Luke that she didn't care for, one thing she'd never questioned was his love for her daughter. She'd seen long before Lorelai had. She realized it was there the first time she'd met Luke at Rory's sixteenth birthday party when he showed up with the ice. She often wondered why it had taken so long for them to admit their true feelings for each other when it was obvious to everyone around them. On the few occasions that she's visited Stars Hollow, she'd heard several of the townspeople whispering about how Luke had been pining for Lorelai for years. "Especially when it includes her favorite flowers."

Luke smiled. It wasn't often that he got a compliment from Richard, let alone Emily. He always figured that Emily would rather see him drop off the face of the earth than be with her daughter.

"How about I make some coffee?" Rory suggested, not wanting the evening with her grandparents to end when everyone seemed to be getting along so well. They'd both even complimented Luke and that was rare.

"Uh, thank you, Rory," Richard replied. "But we'll have to take a rain check. Look at the time, Emily." He sensed that Luke and Lorelai needed to do some talking and he knew that would be easier for them to do if they weren't around.

Emily looked at her watch. "Oh, goodness! I had no idea it was so late!"

"Yes! Who knew that three hours and fourteen minutes could go by so fast?" Lorelai said. When Rory gave her a 'be nice' look, she added. "Well, I certainly didn't."

While Richard and Emily were saying their goodbyes, Rory piped up. "You know, I think I'm gonna' head out too."

"Are you heading back to New Haven?" Lorelai asked.

"No, I think I'm gonna go visit Lane and do some of the giggly girlfest stuff you were talking about earlier, since I'm going to be her maid of honor. Plus, I'm not quite ready to head back to the apartment just yet."

"So, you're still trying to work out how to deal with the whole bridesmaid thing?" Luke asked.

"What whole bridesmaid thing?" Emily asked.

"It's nothing, Grandma. Just a thing Logan and I are dealing with. What would you do, Luke?"

"I think you know what I'd do." He answered. "If you recall, I was in a similar situation two years ago. When it happened to me, I beat up a car, went to jail and got divorced, remember? Not one of my proudest moments."

"Yeah, I remember now. It's just that you've been a part of our family for so long that I keep forgetting that you were married to Nicole."

"You beat up a car?" Emily asked.

"Yeah, I freaked out a little when I caught her cheating. That whole fiasco ranks pretty high on my 'what the hell was I thinking?' list."

"Beating up the car or the marriage in general?" Emily had wondered why Luke had gotten divorced. She'd had no idea that his first wife had been unfaithful. She just always thought that Luke had failed her somehow. She felt guilty for never giving Luke a fair chance; she just immediately jumped on everything she thought was wrong with him. She'd noticed tonight that Rory seemed to have a fatherly affection for him. She made a promise to herself to try to see him for what Lorelai and Rory saw in him.

"Both, actually," Luke answered. "I should never have married Nicole in the first place. We were from two different worlds and a wrong fit from the start."

"The same could be said about you and Lorelai," Richard said. "Being from two different worlds, I mean.

"But there's a difference, Dad," Lorelai argued, feeling the need to yet again defend her life choices. "I _chose _small town life and I love it. You know that I was never comfortable in Hartford society, even when I was a child. I love you and Mom, but I don't ever want to go back to that life. Small town life just suits me better and Luke is a part of that. We both love it here and like running our businesses here. This is where we want to build our life together."

"I understand, Lorelai. While you come from different backgrounds, you have the same goals for the future."

"Exactly!" Lorelai agree, though she still wasn't entirely convinced that she and Luke were on the same page concerning their future.

"Well, I respect your decision, Lorelai, but now I think it's time for your mother and me to go back to that Hartford society life."

After Richard and Emily finished saying their goodbyes, and left, Rory said, "I'm going to take off too."

"Rory, you don't have to leave, "Luke said. "This is your house too. I don't want you to feel like you can't be here just because I'm here."

"I don't feel that way. I just figured you and Mom could use some alone time so you can talk or whatever. Besides maybe talking to Lane will help me gain some perspective on my relationship issues. She's still on the 'I just got engaged high' so maybe that'll help see the glass as half full."

"Ok, but if you want my opinion, I think you really need to ask yourself if you can forgive and forget, then go from there."

"Thanks, Luke." She gave him a brief hug and left.

After she left, Luke and Lorelai were left in silence, knowing they needed to talk, but neither one really knowing for sure how to begin. They stood this way for at least ten minutes, when Lorelai finally couldn't the silence anymore.

"So, "she began. "Why don't you tell me what you and Sookie were talking about today?

TBC


	6. Chapter 6

Author's note: First of all, I want to say a big thank you to everyone who has been reading and reviewing this story. I greatly appreciate the support. I don't think I would have felt as inspired to update as quickly as I have been without it. On a second note, this will be the chapter that many of you have been waiting for: THE TALK. I warn you in advance, you might want to have a box of Kleenex handy because there _will _be tears.

"So, "she began. "Why don't you tell me what you and Sookie were talking about today? She folded her arms across her chest and waited for his answer.

"I told you. I was asking her about the plans you guys had made for our wedding."

"Why? Most of those plans have been cancelled, and some of them can't be redone. It's too late."

"Too late?" _ Oh God, I've screwed up too badly to fix this. She doesn't want to marry me anymore. _He felt like his heart was going to stop beating. He had to know what she meant by that. "Are you saying that you don't want to get married anymore?"

"Do you?"

"Yes, I told you that when we were in Martha's Vineyard. Or don't you remember?"

"Yeah, I remember." She remembered every detail of that weekend and how grouchy he'd been the first part of the weekend and how they'd talked and she'd finally confessed to him that she didn't feel like their wedding was going to happen. She also remembered how sweetly he'd made love to her that night. Then they had talked some more and made love again. She'd known since the pregnancy test came out positive that that had been the night their child was conceived as neither of them had thought to pack condoms. Not to mention the fact that the weekend in Martha's Vineyard coincided with the timing of her last period. When they had come back to Stars Hollow the next day they were laughing and joking. They felt like themselves again. He felt as if they'd made some real progress, but everything changed again when he'd gotten April's message and he went back to shutting her out. She felt the tears she'd been holding back all day start sliding down her face. "But when we came back, it seemed like you'd changed your mind again about marrying me. I wanted so much to believe in you, in us, but there's so much that you don't share with me and we're supposed to be partners! But now you've got this whole other life with April that I'm not included in."

"For the record, I never once changed my mind about marrying you. I've thought about you and me being married ever since you told me about that crazy dream you had about us and you being pregnant with twins. In fact, I was so consumed by it, that it became a big part of why I couldn't truly commit to Nicole."

"Don't you _dare _blame me for your failed marriage!"

"I'm not! I blame me, but I'm trying to explain to you that no matter how hard I tried to get you out of my head, you were always the woman I imagined spending my life with. Before you proposed, I even had this plan in my head of how I was going to propose to you, but you beat me to the punch."

Lorelai was somewhat soothed by this, but was still a little wary. "You had a plan? Tell me."

He flopped down on the couch they'd picked out together and hung his head, his hands on either side of the baseball cap she'd bought for him. "It doesn't matter, Lorelai. It's stupid now."

She uncrossed her arms, relaxing a little and sat beside him on the couch. "Please, Luke." She reached out to him pulling his hands into her lap and forcing him to look at her. "I'd really like to hear it." What she really needed to hear was that he was still 'all in.'

Well, it kind of revolved around buying the Twickham house. I was trying to wait for the deal to go through. I'd been kissing Taylor's ass for two months straight to get him to sell me the house. The whole time I was working on the museum, I kept picturing you and me and our kids in that house. I wanted us to have something to build a real future on. My whole plan was to wait until I got the keys to the house, then I was going to take out to dinner, back to Sniffy's where we had our first real date. Then I thought we'd take a walk around the town square, which of course, would lead to the house since it overlooks the square. I thought then that I'd show you around the house so you could see it without all the creepy museum stuff in it. The idea what that I'd propose to you there and start sharing with you all the ideas I had for renovating it making it really feel like our home. I didn't tell you about it because I wanted to surprise you with it. "

"Luke, I had no idea you'd put that much thought into it." She was deeply touched by the fact that he's thought up such a romantic way to say to her 'I choose you.'

Like I said though, it's stupid now. You never wanted the Twickham house in the first place. You always wanted to stay here. You love this house."

"It's not stupid. I mean you're right, I _do _love this house, but I love you more and anywhere that we live is fine by me as long as we're together, but I think we both know that we've got a lot of things we need to work out."

"I know. That's what I've been working on for most of the day. I moved my clothes out of the apartment and brought some pictures and photo albums and stuff over when I came here to take care of that cricket for you."

"I noticed the clothes in the closet and picture of us from Liz's wedding on your dresser upstairs. And of course the flowers were a wonderful touch too, but I need to know that we have a real chance to make it. I need to feel like you're really committed to making us work."

"I am," He assured her. "That's why I went to see Sookie today. I wanted to find out how much of our June third wedding could still be saved. She said that the church and reception hall are already booked, but we can work around that. I was thinking maybe we could have the ceremony and the reception in the town square, like Liz and TJ did, only without the scary jugglers and renaissance freaks. I even went to see Taylor today to see what it would take to get the necessary permits and all that. Sookie's agreed to do the catering for us, since the caterer you'd booked, took another job. Kirk said he'll DJ for us if we want him to. I talked to the florist when I got your flowers today and everything is cool there. I also went to the printer and they said that as soon as we get them a guest list they can get the invitations printed and sent out the next day. It'll cost us a little more, but I don't care about the cost. I just want to marry you."

Lorelai opened her mouth to say something but Luke cut her off. He was too excited about this to let her talk over him before he could finish his thought.

"Before you say no, let me finish. I know you said you thought the town square gazebo thing boring, but I can't think of a better place than that that represents us. We've had a lot of moments there. Like the firelight festival where Rachel took our picture, the impromptu picnic when you conned me into to buying your basket, when you were upset over not having the money to finish the inn, the amazing dance we shared at Liz's wedding. Not to mention the fact that we celebrated our engagement there. What better place to celebrate our marriage?"

Lorelai stood up and began pacing across the room. "It's a nice idea, Luke, but I'm a little upset that you did all of this without even thinking of talking to me about any of it!"

"How is that different from you making all of the original plans without talking to me?"

"Look, I appreciate the fact that you took the time to do all of this, but making wedding plans isn't going to fix the problems in our relationship!" The tears started flowing again, but she didn't care. This was just one more thing that he'd left her out of.

Luke stood up and joined Lorelai in her pacing. "Don't you think I know that? But what I'm trying to do here is prove to you once and for all that I am in this all the way! I want to spend the rest of my life with you! I know that we have things to work out, but that's why I'm here! Why I'm paying Caesar overtime to close for me tonight! Why I've been busting my ass all day to try to make sure that we could still get married on the date that you picked! I wanted us to try to talk things out and work on our issues so we could make things better. I even went to see Anna today to see how she'd feel about April spending some time with you. I want you to get to know my kid! I was still hoping that it wasn't too late for us to have kids of our own. I wanted to talk to you about it and see if you're still open to the idea of having a kid with me."

"We _so _don't need to talk about that."

"I think we do!" Luke couldn't understand why she was refusing to talk this out with him. He thought this was what she wanted, the whole package.

"No, Luke, We really don't!"

"Why the hell not?"

"Because I'm already pregnant!" she shouted. She covered her mouth as if doing so could take it back. She hadn't meant to tell him about the baby while they were screaming at each other.

"What?! You're pregnant? Really?"

"No, I just thought it would be a fun thing to throw in there while we're entertaining Babette with our screaming match."

"You're sure?"

"I took an ept this morning in the bathroom that came out positive plus I haven't had a period since the beginning of February so I'm pretty sure. About eight weeks or so, I'd guess. Which would mean the baby's due in November. I'll know more when I have it confirmed by a doctor."

"Wow!" _I'm going to be a father. _He reached for Lorelai and pulled her into his arms. "Lorelai, this is so amazing." He continued to hold her. He felt her whole body shake as she sobbed into his shoulder. He heard her say something, but the sound was muffled against his flannel. He lifted her head up and wiped the tears away. "I didn't quite catch that."

"I'm so relieved that you're not mad."

"Mad? You thought I'd be mad? The woman I love is having my baby. Why would I be mad?"

"Maybe mad is the wrong word. Upset? Overwhelmed? Freaked out? Not happy?"

"I'm not upset, or overwhelmed. I'll admit I _am _a little freaked out, but far from not happy. I mean this is going to be a big change in our lives, But I don't ever want you to think for even one second that I'm not happy about this baby. We're really going to have to sit down and talk about things. So, why don't we sit back down on the couch like we were and finish the talk we were having before the screaming match started?"

She nodded, "Ok" They settled back in on the couch, Luke taking up most of one end of it and Lorelai leaning against him. "Luke, do you ever think we made a mistake crossing the friendship line?"

"What? No! Why would you say that? Are you sorry that we got together?"

"NO, but it just seems that we talked to each other so much better before we were a couple. We used to share everything with each other when we were just friends."

"You're right. We did. It's weird, isn't it? You'd think being a couple we'd share more, not less. I guess that's one of the major things we need to work on."

"Ok," Lorelai agreed. "Let's start with you telling me why you felt the need to keep your life with April separate from your life with me."

"You're going right for the big one, huh?"

"You know me. I like the big ones." She looked up and flashed him a wicked grin.

"Jeez." He laughed. One thing that had never changed about Lorelai was her ability to make just about anything dirty.

"Come on, now," she said in all seriousness. "Don't avoid the subject. I really need to know. I think after all we've been through together, I deserve to know."

"You're right. You do deserve to know. It's hard for me to talk about though. Mostly I was afraid, and I hate to admit that I'm scared of anything."

Lorelai looked at him in surprise. This wasn't what she'd been expecting to hear. "What were you afraid of? That I wouldn't like April? That I wouldn't accept her?"

"No, it was my own insecurity coming through. You have no idea how big a blow it was to me that you and I were talking about having kids and then I find out that I already _have _a kid that her mother never bothered to tell me about. The worst thing about it was when I confronted Anna about it, she said I was never a kid guy. She acted as if she'd never told me because she thought I'd be some kind of horrible father to April. Then when April and I made plans together for the first time. It was stupid and awkward and I said and did all the wrong things. I didn't know how to relate to her at all. I started to realize that Anna was right. I sucked as a dad. And I wanted so badly for us to have a family of our own, that I couldn't stand the thought of you seeing me being a rotten father to April. I thought that if you did, you'd change your mind about wanting to have kids with me. I figured if I took more time to get to know her and what she likes, that it would prove to you that I _can _be a good dad."

"Luke, I never would have expected you to instantly know how to bond with April. She's twelve years old. That's almost a teenager. She has her own interests and quirks and personality. It'll be different with our kid. You'll be able to get to know this kid from the very beginning. And it's not like kids come with an instruction manual. I sure as hell didn't know how to be a mom at sixteen. Of course, it didn't help that my mother insisted on hiring a nanny to do most of the work. Then when I tried to do something for Rory, she would tell me that was the nanny's job. I couldn't really do all the things I wanted to with my own kid. That's one of the main reasons I ran away from home. I had to learn on my own how to be a good mom to Rory. I know from experience it's not easy being a parent. I wouldn't have thought you were bad dad if you messed up with April a few times. Parents aren't perfect. I mean, look at mine."

Luke laughed, but he had to admit that her parents had been a little warmer to him recently. "I guess you're right. I just didn't want you seeing me being less than perfect as a dad."

"Oh, please! I've already seen that. Remember that crazy double date when you kept barking at Dean all night?"

"That was different. I'm not Rory's dad."

"No, you're not. I wish you were, but I can tell you that she thinks of you as a father figure. You've been the closest thing to a dad she's ever had. It's not like Christopher ever took the time to really get to know her like you did and like you're doing with April. When you found out about April you could've let it go. A lot of guys would've thought 'why bother now when she's half grown?' But the thing is you didn't walk away. You made a conscious effort to be a part of your daughter's life and that means something. I have tremendous respect for you for that, even if it did put us in a rocky place.

"Rocky, Rocky II and half of the one with Mr. T." he quipped.

Lorelai laughed. "That's it, Mister. No more _Angel _reruns for you. I can't let you start out-quoting me."

"Hey, you're the one who made me watch the damn things to start with."

"After you watched them you admitted you thought they were kinda cool."

"Yeah,"

"The point I was getting at before," she continued trying to steer the conversation back where it had been. "Is that you made an effort with April and I applaud that. I won't lie, though, and tell you that it didn't hurt me that you refused to let me be a part of it."

"I know that I hurt you and for that, I'm truly sorry. I know saying I'm sorry isn't enough, but if you'll let me I promise to spend the rest of my life making it up to you."

"That sounds nice," she said. "So, June third, town square, Huh?"

"Only if that's what you want too. There's nothing set in stone yet."

"I think you're right about the whole town square thing. There is no better place to celebrate our marriage. We have so many shared memories there, plus I do like the idea of an outdoor wedding."

"Your mother will hate it."

"Just one more plus." She giggled as she snuggled up to her fiancé again.

Luke laughed along with her for a moment, thinking of Emily Gilmore's reaction when they told her they'd be having their wedding outside amidst the bugs and the elements. He felt better about things than he had in a while. He still had some things to work out with Anna over April, but he'd meant what he said. He was going to fight for his daughter. Thinking of daughters reminded him that he still hadn't asked Lorelai the question that had been plaguing him for months. He hoped that he wouldn't destroy the newfound calm by doing it, but he had to know.

"Before we give you mother an aneurysm, there's something that's been bugging me too. I'm probably being an idiot for asking, since we're just starting to get things back together, but I have to know the answer."

"Go ahead." Lorelai sat up and looked at him. She hoped this wasn't going to be a fight-inducing question, but she knew in the sake of fairness, she should let him ask. He'd just poured his heart out to her and shared his deepest fears. She owed to him to answer any questions he had to ask.

"When all that stuff was going on with Rory, why did you keep me out of it?"

"I didn't. I told you everything I was feeling about it, sometimes even when you didn't want to hear it."

"I'm not talking about sharing your feelings. I'm talking about the fact that you wouldn't let me help with any of that. You and Rory were both hurting so much and it was killing me seeing you two going through that and not being allowed to help. There were so many times when I wanted to drive up to your parents house, drag her back here kicking and screaming, lock you two in a room together and make you talk to each other."

"Why didn't you ever say anything?"

"I did. That night when you first told me about her moving in with your parents I told we needed to go up there and get her back here and make her listen to reason. Then I mentioned it again after you got so mad at me when I told Rory we were engaged. It really hurt me that you refused to let me be a part of the solution and that you kept putting off setting a wedding date because of this whole mess. I thought Rory's birthday party would be a good opportunity for you two to finally air things out, but you wanted to leave the party early after one strained attempt at conversation with her and like a dumbass I agreed when what I really wanted to do was force you to have a real conversation with your daughter. For months, it was like I was on the outside looking in and it really hurt me, Lorelai."

"I'm sorry. I was so wrapped up in my own hurt feelings that I neglected yours. The thing is, I was intentionally trying to keep you out. It's just with Rory siding with my parents, I didn't want you involved. T he last time you were around my parents before that was their stupid vow renewal and I didn't want you to have to be subjected to their criticism and snobbishness. I saw how much it had hurt you then, and I didn't want to see that happen again. Plus if you recall, we broke up over that whole incident and I didn't want to take the chance that my mother wouldn't keep her word and stay out of our relationship if she thought you were threatening her relationship with Rory. Does that make sense?"

"Yeah, I get it. Your mother is definitely not an easy woman to get along with."

"Amen to that." She chuckled and cuddled up next to Luke again glad that they'd aired out their issues. Their problems weren't solved by a long shot, but they were on their way. They both had to overcome hurt feelings and learn to trust each other again but she thought they'd made some good progress. She was content for the moment. She loved having his arms around her. "Hey, Luke?"

"Hmmmm?"

"Let's go upstairs."

"Upstairs?"

"Yeah. We still haven't properly broken in our new bed."

Realization dawned on Luke when it hit him what she was asking for. "Are you sure it's safe? With the baby, I mean."

"Yes, I'm sure. Making love won't hurt the baby and I think it's something we both need right now to reconnect. Come on, let's go." She stood up, grabbed his hand and tried to pull him up off the couch."

"Damn, you're demanding." He said in mock protest as he stood up, grabbed her by the waist and started walking her backward toward the stairs. I don't know if I can stand a whole lifetime of this."

"How about this?" she asked as she let Luke back her into the railing. She lightly brushed her lips against his, testing the waters. He responded with enthusiasm wrapping his arms tightly around her as she slid hers around his neck, knocking his cap off his head in the process. She broke the kiss, gasping for air. It had been a long time since they'd kissed like that.

"Now, _that _I could stand a lifetime of," he said with a smile.

"Good. Because you're stuck with me now. You already started making wedding plans."

"God help me," He said as he and Lorelai walked hand in hand up to their bedroom.

TBC


	7. Chapter 7

Author's note: I want to say thanks again to all of you for reading and reviewing. It has really inspired me to keep going.

Just a quick note on the wedding band scene in this chapter; It was inspired by some friends of mine. When they were planning their wedding and shopping for rings, they had an endless debate on gold versus white gold until they found a shop that did custom designs. They eventually compromised on a design that was a mixture of both. The description of the rings in this chapter is loosely based on that concept because I could picture Luke and Lorelai having the same debate.

April Nardini walked into the house she shared with her mother after hours of math problems, ready to just relax in front of the TV. "Hey, Mom! I'm home!" She called out.

"I'm in the living room," Anna replied. She looked up from the stack of bills she had piled on the coffee table when her daughter walked into the room. "How was your day?"

"Practicing for the contest, you know how that is number, numbers, and more numbers with a few letters thrown in just to confuse things."

Anna laughed. April definitely had Luke's dry sense of humor. Thinking of Luke made her frown. She couldn't get over his behavior today. What right did he have to waltz in here into her home and start trying to dictate to her who her kid could and couldn't hang out with? She'd been afraid of this when April had first told her about her "Who's my daddy" project. She'd known thirteen years ago that he wasn't capable of being a stable male role model for her child. He'd just proven that today by losing his temper and yelling at her. And what exactly did he mean when he said he was going to fight for his daughter. If he was planning on getting a lawyer and suing her for visitation, he was in for a rude awakening. No lawyer in their right mind would take a case like that, knowing that they'd lose. Even if he did manage to find a lawyer dumb enough to take his case, he hadn't been in April's life long enough for any judge to grant him visitation or partial custody. _Let him try. He'll lose and then he'll be begging me to do things my way._

"Mom, are you ok?" April asked, noticing that he mother seemed to be zoning out.

"Yeah, Hon, I'm fine."

"Ok, if you say so. By the way, did my dad call? He said he was going to. We wanted to talk to him some more about this trip. I'm so excited about it."

"I bet you are. It's quite an accomplishment."

"I don't mean just the contest. That part is cool, obviously, but I meant getting to spend a whole week with Luke. I've never gotten to spend more than a few hours with him at a time between my school stuff and his work stuff. I think it'll be great for us to have some real father-daughter bonding time."

Anna looked at her daughter. She hadn't realized that April was so happy that Luke had agreed to chaperone her trip. She didn't want her daughter to be hurt, but she needed to be honest with her. "Honey, sit down. We need to talk about that." Anna said. She needed to tell her that Luke wouldn't be going on the trip with her after all.

April sat next to her mother. "What's going on, Mom? Did something happen? He _is_ still coming with me, isn't he?"

"No, he's not. He came by here today and we had a fight and I told him I didn't want him going with you. In fact, I told him I don't want him hanging out with you anymore."

"What? Mom, why would you do that? You know how much this means to me! I want my father involved in my life and you just told him he couldn't be a part of my life anymore?"

"Look, it was a mistake for me to let him have contact with you in the first place."

April stood up and glared at her mother as if she didn't even know her. "That's bullshit, Mom, and you know it! What was a mistake was you never telling me for years who my father was!"

"April! You watch your language! You need to seriously calm down!"

"No! I won't watch my language and I _won't _calm down. Not until you explain this to me in a way that makes sense. You owe me that!"

"I don't owe you anything! I have fed and clothed you for years without any help from Luke and I won't have you speaking to me like that. This attitude and foul language of yours in his influence and I don't like it. This is just one more reason you shouldn't spend any more time with him." She knew it wasn't true, at least the language part anyway. She'd heard April swear before, but it was usually when she was _really _angry.

"_Please,_ Mom! Have you met me? You know I don't let anyone else influence me. I do what I want and I say what I want, and I don't give a damn what anyone else thinks about it! As for my attitude, this is all you! I'm so angry with you! A kid is supposed to have _two _parents and you robbed me of that my whole life! I worked _really _hard on that project to find out who my father is and now that I know who he is, you want to take him from me! It's not right!"

"What are you talking about? You only did that stupid project to win the science fair."

"No, that's just what I told you. I knew I was never going to win that science fair. I did that project because I was tired on not knowing who my father was. Every time I asked who my father was, you'd change the subject, or act all hurt, like you weren't enough for me. You never understood that I _need _to know where I come from. I need to know my father! I was just getting to know him and he turned out to be pretty cool. I mean he's a big spaz half the time, but then so am I. Oh, and by the way the language, I didn't learn from him. I've heard that for years on TV, at school, and from you when you thought I wasn't around. "

"Well, I don't care that you didn't learn the bad language from him. I still don't want you to be around him until he learns how to control his temper. I'm only trying to do what's best for you."

"No, you're trying to do what's best for you! You don't give a damn about me and my feelings! I hate you! I hate you for ruining things for me!" April stormed into her room and slammed the door behind her.

Richard and Emily Gilmore walked into their home after leaving Stars Hollow. They'd had a pleasant visit with their daughter, granddaughter and future son-in-law. They walked into the living room. Emily sat down in her normal seat as she did every evening while Richard walked to the bar and poured himself a glass of scotch.

"Would you like a drink, Emily?" he asked his wife.

"No, thank you," she replied. She was still thinking about the events of the day. Seeing her daughter in her wedding dress, listening while she talked to her about her relationship with Luke and her fears about her pregnancy. Lorelai had never opened up to her this much. She reflected on her promise not to say anything about it and felt conflicting emotions. She didn't want to betray her daughter confidence in her, but she felt she couldn't keep this from her husband. When they'd reconciled after their separation, they'd promised not to keep secrets from each other. Besides, Richard had a right to know that he was going to be a grandfather again. All the way home these thoughts had been weighing on her mind.

"Emily, Is something bothering you?" Richard asked, taking his seat in his familiar armchair. "You haven't strung a whole sentence together since we left Lorelai's house."

"_Luke _and Lorelai's house," she corrected.

"So, they _are _living together now."

"It seems so."

"Well, we knew it had to happen eventually. They seem very comfortable there together."

"Yes, they do. For now, anyway." She kept thinking about how cramped that house would be with a new baby, plus she knew that Luke didn't really have his own space there, unless you counted his work space in the garage where she'd once seen him working on his father's boat. She also wondered what would happen if he started having more regular visitation with April, including overnight visits. There definitely wasn't room for a twelve year old girl there.

"What does that mean? You think they'll break up again? They seemed pretty happy to me."

"No, I think they're going to spend the rest of their lives together." She'd realized today how serious her daughter really was about Luke. "Richard, if I tell you something, something that Lorelai made me promise not to repeat, can I have your word that you won't say anything until she's ready to talk to you about it?"

"If it's something Lorelai asked you not to repeat, maybe you shouldn't tell me. I wouldn't want you to break a promise to her. It seemed like you two were actually connecting like a mother and daughter should. I wouldn't want you to jeopardize that."

"I don't want that either, but I also don't like keeping secrets from you, especially since this is a secret that affects you too. Lorelai shared so much with me today. That's the first time she's ever done that. She poured her heart out to me and I just listened and she actually let me give her some motherly advice without arguing about it." She knew that she'd never have the kind of mother-daughter relationship with Lorelai that Lorelai had with Rory, but today's conversation had broken down a lot of walls between them and that meant something to her. How could she risk putting up another wall between them? But on the other hand, how could she risk putting up another wall between her and Richard by not telling him something this big?

"I'll tell you what," Richard said, breaking into to Emily's thoughts. "If you really feel that you need to tell me what she told you, I promise I won't say a word. If you decide that you can't tell me without marring your relationship with Lorelai, I'll understand. Though, I can't imagine what she could have told you that would affect me in a way that you would have you this conflicted."

Emily smiled at her husband, wondering how she got lucky enough to have a man like him in her life. She knew she was a difficult woman to get along. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." He reached over and squeezed her hand to let her know that he meant it.

"She's pregnant," Emily blurted out without meaning to.

"What?!" Richard bolted out of his chair. All the positive thoughts he'd had about Luke earlier in the evening flew right out the window when he heard those two words come out of Emily's mouth. All the memories he had from 22 years ago came rushing back in a flood. How angry he'd been when he found out that his sixteen year old daughter had gotten pregnant. How humiliated he'd been when he'd had to tell all of his friends that she was going to be an unwed mother when she adamantly refused to marry Christopher. How much he'd wanted to kill the young man with his bare hand knowing what he'd done to his only daughter.

"Lorelai's pregnant. We're going to be grandparents again."

"I'll kill him!" He walked toward the front door. Emily raced after him and tugged on his arm, trying to stop him.

"NO! You can't say anything! You promised!"

"That was before I knew the whole story. That man impregnated our only daughter and I'm going to make sure that he knows exactly how I feel about this!"

"Please, don't do this," she pleaded with him.

"Let go of my arm, Emily! I'm going to give that man a piece of my mind!"

"Stop! You'll ruin everything! Luke doesn't know yet!"

"I don't care! I'm not ok with the fact that my daughter is once again pregnant out of wedlock and I can't believe that you are!"

"This time it's different!"

"How, Emily? How is it different?" Richard demanded.

"Because she's not sixteen anymore and Luke is not Christopher!"

"I'm well aware of that, Emily, but still thanks to him, Lorelai is going to be an unwed mother again.

"No, Richard, she's not. They're getting married in two months. Their wedding plans were made before this child was even conceived. I'm begging please don't say or do anything until we know for sure that Lorelai has told Luke about the baby. He needs to hear it from her, not us."

Richard finally released his grip on his coat. He remembered years ago Emily telling him that she was expecting Lorelai and tried to imagine how it would have felt if he'd heard the news that he was going to be a father from someone else."You're right, of course."

"I know I am," she said with a smug smile. "Now, come and sit back down so we can talk about this."

"All right." They made their way back to their seats. "So, tell me how you feel about this."

"You first. Tell what caused you to think about committing homicide."

"I wasn't _really _going to kill him. It's like you said Luke is not Christopher. In fact, Luke is about as different from Christopher as any man could be. He built a successful business that he's kept going for more than fifteen years, and let's face it, none of Christopher's business ventures ever lasted that long."

"Very true," Emily agreed.

"Plus he's made some wise investments and he's responsible about saving money for the future, which is why I thought he'd be more responsible about things like this, especially given the fact that he's already got one child out of wedlock."

"So does Lorelai, and in case you've forgotten, they _are _getting married."

"I know that, Emily, but I don't want them starting out their marriage on the wrong foot. Sustaining a new marriage is hard enough, and they've got more than enough to worry about with Luke's newly found daughter without adding the pressure of caring for a newborn child on top of it. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't worried about their chances of making it through all this together."

"That's for them to work out, not us."

"That's never been your attitude before. You've always tried to butt into Lorelai's personal life."

"I know, but I made a promise to Luke when I went to him last year, that if he and Lorelai got back together, I would stay out of it, and so far, I've kept my word."

"I guess we'll just have to see how this unfolds, won't we?"

"Yes, we will." She wanted so much to ease her daughter's mind and chase away her fears, but she knew that Luke was the only one who could do that. She hoped that she wouldn't wait too long to tell him the truth. "I have thought of a way that we can help take some of the pressure off without really butting in and buy them a fabulous wedding present all in one fell swoop."

"Oh? How's that?"

"We could buy them a bigger house. You and I both know that Lorelai's house is nowhere near big enough, now that they're expecting."

"Wouldn't that violate your promise to Luke to stay out of it?"

"Not if it's a wedding present."

"I'm not entirely sure that Luke is the type of man who would accept an expensive gift like that."

"He might if he knew it was for the good of his family. He seems to be the type who's devoted to family. After all, he took in that rowdy nephew of his and he's been making an effort to be a part of his daughter's life even though he missed out on the first twelve years of it."

"That's true. Let me sleep on it and get back to you."

"All right." She knew she'd get her way. Anytime Richard had ever said he needed to sleep on an issue, he always came back to her with the answer she wanted to hear. She smiled as she about securing her daughter's future and the future of her unborn grandchild, convinced that everything would work out.

Rory walked into the crap shack after her visit with Lane, hoping she'd given her mom and Luke enough time together. As she walked toward her room, she noticed a familiar blue baseball cap lying on the floor in front of the railing at the foot of the stairs. As she bent to pick it up, she heard her mother's giggly laughter coming from upstairs. She smiled at hearing that when she heard Luke's deep rumbling laugh answering back. _Ewww, _she thought knowing that they were in bed, but still happy all the same that they were working things out. She hung Luke's cap up on the coat rack and went to her room. She picked up a book and her radio headphones, and settled on to her bed, making sure that the headphones were on good and tight. As much as she loved her mom and Luke together, she didn't want to hear things she shouldn't be hearing.

Upstairs in their newly remodeled bedroom, Luke and Lorelai were contentedly wrapped in each other's arms post-lovemaking. They were smiling and laughing like they used to.

"I can't believe all the stuff you accomplished in one day. All the wedding plans, going to see Anna, the flowers, the closet…"

"Well, I still have more stuff to move over here, but I'm glad you got what I was trying to do. Which reminds me, I have something I want to show you?" He picked his discarded jeans off the floor and pulled out the ring box he'd put in his pocket earlier in the day."

"What is that?"

"Our wedding bands or at least I hope they will be. I hope you like them enough to wear them.

"Wedding bands? You mean you went to a jewelry store today too?"

"No. This I did several months ago, before we'd even set a wedding date. Do you remember when were shopping for Rory's birthday present and we found this little jewelry store in Woodbury?"

"Yeah, I remember. I wasn't sure what to get Rory for her twenty-first birthday since our Atlantic City plan got all shot to hell. We must have hit twenty stores that day trying to find something."

"I remember. But do you remember when we saw that display of wedding rings and we got into that debate about gold versus white gold?"

"Yeah, you insisted we had to have gold bands because it was traditional and I wanted white gold because it would match the platinum setting on my engagement ring better."

"Well, I found out that the place does custom orders, so I went back later and ordered these." He handed her the box. She gasped when she saw what was inside.

"Luke, they're beautiful!" The rings were adorned with three small diamonds each laid diagonally across the top and had threads of gold and white gold intermingled perfectly like maypole ribbons.

"You really like them?"

"I love them!"

"Do you love them like you said you loved my grandmother's bedroom furniture?" He didn't want this to be yet another thing they would fight about later.

"NO! I really, _really _love them! You found a way for us to both get what we want and still have matching rings." She kissed him.

"I'm glad you like them." He said as he took the box from her, placed it on the night stand and snuggled back up with her. Luke gently placed his hand on Lorelai's stomach still amazed at the thought that they'd made a baby together. He couldn't stop smiling.

"That's it, Luke," Lorelai said, smiling at the contact. "That's where our kid is going to be living and growing for the next seven months or so. "

"You know what this means, don't you?"

"What?"

"I'm _totally _cutting off your coffee supply."

"You wouldn't dare!"

"Watch me."

"That's so wrong! I mean what's the point of having my own personal coffee supplier if he doesn't supply me with coffee?"

"Oh, is that all you keep me around for, my coffee-making skills?"

"Oh, no, my friend. You have _many_ other skills that I enjoy too, several of which you displayed a little while ago." She beamed at him. They both laughed. He pulled her closer. It felt so to laugh together and to feel connected again.

"You've got a few skills in that area too." He smiled back at her.

"Now, about this coffee thing, can we negotiate?"

"No, no coffee."

"You're going to make me beg for it, aren't you?

"You know I like it when you beg for it," He responded with a mischievous grin.

"Dirty!"

"It was meant to be." He leaned in and planted a quick kiss on her lips. "Did you mean what you said earlier about the house thing, because I've been thinking that even with all the remodeling, this house still isn't big enough with a baby on the way."

"I know. I've been thinking the same thing all day. The truth is the real reason that I didn't want the Twickham house when you did was because things were so bad between me and Rory."

"But you proposed to me when things were bad between you and Rory, so I really don't see what one thing's got to do with the other."

"It wasn't really about not wanting the Twickham house. It was about not selling _this _house. This is Rory's house too and I couldn't sell it without talking to her and since we were kinda not talking at the time…"

"I get it."

"The same thing applies to me dragging my feet on setting a wedding date. You're my best friend in the world, next to Rory, and I couldn't commit to marrying my best friend without my other best friend standing there beside me at the altar."

"But you know Rory would've supported you, no matter how bad things were between you."

"I know, but I wanted her to be there because she genuinely wanted to help us celebrate, not because she was doing it out of some daughterly obligation."

"That makes sense." It really did make sense to him. He knew how close Rory and Lorelai were.

"Speaking of daughters, you never did tell me what happened when you went to see Anna today. What did she say about April spending time with me?"

"It was a complete disaster. She started talking about how she didn't want April hanging out with _some woman _she didn't know as if you were the antichrist or something. I was initially going to suggest that she meet you first, but when she started talking you down without even knowing you, something inside me just snapped and I let her have it. I told everything I was feeling about how she's kept me from knowing about April for years and how I was tired of her controlling everything, and that April was my kid too."

"Good for you."

"No, not good for me. I blew it. I went too far and now she says she doesn't want me going on this trip with April."

"Oh, Babe, I'm sorry. You went there for me, and now she's being a…"

"A bitch," Luke finished. "You can say it. I've been thinking it ever since it happened." He paused for a moment, thinking about what his next move should be. "I think I might need to hire a lawyer to fight for my rights. Do you think your parents would be able to help with that?"

"You wanna ask my parents for help?" She was surprised. He was the kind of man who usually didn't ask anyone for help. He was more the type to solve his own problems.

"No, I really don't. In fact I'd rather dive naked into a swimming pool full of piranhas than admit to your parents that I need help, but they're well connected. If anyone would know a good family lawyer, they would. I'm not gonna let Anna just get by with keeping my kid from me."

"I like the naked part."

"Would you be serious?'

"What? I seriously like you naked." She said with a smile as she idly played with the hair on his chest.

"Lorelai…"

"Ok, ok, we'll talk to my parents tomorrow. Speaking of which, my mom knows about the baby."

"What? You told your mother before you told me?"

"I didn't tell her. She figured it out on her own and when she called me on it, I couldn't deny it."

"Great! That'll just give her one more reason to hate me."

"She didn't seem to hate you when I told her about the baby, not anymore than usual, anyway. She might have held back though, since she knew I was a little upset at the time. I guess we'll find out tomorrow when go see them."

"Well, then I suggest we get some sleep. It's been a long day."

"Are you sure you're not up for round two first?" Lorelai asked suggestively.

"As tempting as that offer is, I'm going to have to take a rain check. We're going to need our strength if we're gonna spend an extended period of time with your parents."

"You are so right," she said with a laugh. She rolled over onto her side facing the wall and Luke spooned up behind her into their usual sleeping position. "I love you, Luke."

"I love you, too," he replied as he slid his arm around her, placing his hand protectively over his unborn child and started to fall into the first peaceful sleep he'd had in months.

TBC


	8. Chapter 8

The next morning, Anna woke after a restless night of tossing and turning. Her daughter's were had been ringing through her head every time she'd tried to close her eyes. _I hate you!_ April had never said that to her. She hated Luke for this. Why had he insisted on having contact with April she and April had managed just fine without him. She dragged herself out of bed and made her way to her daughter's room. She knocked on the door. "April?" She called. "Come on out, Hon. I think we need to talk about what happened last night. When she got no response she tried again. "April, come on! You can't stay mad at me forever. I did what I did for your own good." When she still got no response she turned the doorknob and walked into the room. What she saw almost made her heart stop. April wasn't there and her bed hadn't been slept in. She looked over to her daughter's dresser where her bike helmet usually sat and noticed that it wasn't there. She ran to the open window, looked out it into the yard where April normally left her bike and found that it was gone too. She ran immediately for the phone and started making phone calls.

Rory was awakened by unfamiliar noise in the kitchen and the smell of fresh coffee. She crawled out of bed and walked into to the kitchen to find her future stepfather at the stove, fixing breakfast with Paul Anka at his feet happily munching on a plate of bacon.

"Good morning, Luke," she said as she reached for a coffee mug and poured herself a cup of that steaming liquid.

"Good morning," Luke replied, turning to Rory. "How are you?"

"Ok, I guess," she answered unconvincingly, as she sat down at the table with her coffee.

"Still dwelling on it, huh?"

"Yeah, I just don't know what to do, Luke. Logan says he loves me, but now I find out that he slept with all those girls while we were apart. Call me crazy, but to me, that doesn't seem like something that someone who loves you does."

"Just remember what I said last night. I can't tell you what to do in this situation. Nobody can. All I can tell you is that you have to figure out I you can live with it. If you honestly can't, then you need to cut Logan loose."

"That's just it, Luke. I don't know if I can live with it. I love him so much, but finding out about those bridesmaids broke my heart. If he really loves me, why didn't he love me enough to be faithful while we were apart?"

"I wish I had an answer for you, but I don't." He hated this. Hated seeing Rory hurting like this again over a guy. He knew what _he _wanted to do. He wanted to drive to New Haven and punch the guy's lights out or at least give him a good scare for breaking his future step-daughter's heart. Instead, he was calmly trying to give her advice. "You just need to follow your heart."

"Speaking of following your heart, since you're still here this morning, I'm guessing you and Mom worked some things out."

"Yeah, we did. He answered with a smile as he turned back toward the stove to flip the pancakes he was making.

"Good. I'm glad. You guys are so great together. When things are good between you, you really make her happy."

"All I want to do is make her happy."

As if on cue, Lorelai walked into the room with a glowing smile on her face. She greeted Luke with a good morning kiss and like Rory had done reached for a coffee mug. When she picked up the coffee pot, she paused, sniffed, and then frowned.

"What's wrong, Mom?" Rory asked.

"This is decaf," she said with an accusing look aimed at Luke.

"What?" Luke said, trying to sound innocent. "You're crazy!"

"I am not crazy! You switched my regular coffee for decaf!"

"She's got a finely tuned nose when it comes to coffee."

"Cone on, Rory, you can't honestly expect me to believe that she can _smell _the difference between regular and decaf."

"AHA!" Lorelai exclaimed in triumph. "So you admit you switched my coffee! "

"I admit to nothing!" He said defiantly, as Lorelai began frantically tearing through the kitchen cabinets "What the hell are you doing?"

"I'm looking for the real stuff. I had a whole brand new can of it."

"You're not gonna find it."

"You _did _switch my coffee."

"Yeah, all right, I admit it; I switched your coffee to decaf and got rid of the real stuff. I meant what I said last night about cutting off your coffee supply."

"And exactly why are you being a coffee Nazi, Luke?" Rory asked.

"You don't know?" He looked at Rory's puzzled expression, and then turned to Lorelai. "She doesn't know?" Lorelai shook her head. "Wow, if your mom knows already, I thought for sure you'd have told Rory."

"I told you last night, Luke," she replied, "I didn't tell my mother. She guessed on her own."

"Hello?!" Rory interjected. "Someone's still feeling out of the loop here!"

"Sorry, Hon, I've been meaning to tell you something, but I wanted to share it with Luke first."

"Tell me what?'

"You're gonna be a big sister. Mommy's pregnant."

Rory jumped out of her seat and hugged her mother tight. "Oh my God!" she squealed. She bent down and talked to her mother's stomach. "Hi, Baby! I'm your big sister, Rory!" She then gripped Luke in a tight hug. "Congratulations, Luke."

"Thanks, Kid," He said. Rory released him from her embrace and then punched him on the arm. "Ow! What the hell was that for?"

"That was for destroying this perfect image I had in my head of my mother only having had sex one time!" Luke laughed at this.

"You live in a fantasy world if you think that's true," Lorelai said to her daughter. "Luke and I did it more than once the night your new sibling was conceived."

"Mom! That's _way_ more information than I want to know."

"That's way more information than _I _want you to know too," Luke added with a glance toward Lorelai as he began filling plates for breakfast. "Why don't you two sit back down so we can have breakfast?" The Gilmore girls did as they were told. It's not like they were going to turn down a breakfast made by Luke. Luke set a plate piled with pancakes, eggs and bacon in front of each of them, then set down a third one for himself. He was just about to sit down himself when the doorbell rang. "You two stay here and eat, I'll get it." He had no sooner opened the door when Anna pushed her way through it.

"Where is she, Luke!" she demanded walking into the living room.

"Where is who? What the hell are you talking about?"

"You know damn well what I'm talking about, Luke. Where's my kid?"

"April?"

"How many kids do you think I have Luke?"

Lorelai and Rory hearing the shouting rose from the table and walked into the living room.

"I don't know, Anna. You were kind of a tramp back in the day. I mean, there were two other guys April tested besides me!"

"That is such a low blow and really beneath you, Luke!"

"What can I say? I just call them like I see them. If you recall, the whole reason we broke up in the first place was because you were sleeping around on me!"

"Wow, "Lorelai said. "So, this is Anna? She doesn't seem at _all_ your type, Hon." She said as she slid her arm possessively around his waist.

"You know, you've got a lot of nerve judging me," Anna said to Luke. "Especially considering you're shacking up with your girlfriend here!" She shot a vengeful look toward Lorelai.

"Fiancée," Luke corrected. "Soon to be wife," He reminded Anna. Lorelai smiled at the thought and at the fact that Luke was standing up for her.

"Whatever! Just tell me where April is!"

"Why would you think that I know where April is, if you don't? You made it pretty clear yesterday that you were going to keep her from me!"

"And _you_ made it pretty clear that you weren't going to let that happen!"

Lorelai felt the need to jump in and defend her man. "So, what are you saying?" She asked incredulously. "Do you honestly think that Luke would resort to kidnapping in order to be with his kid? He's not some psycho stalker. If you knew anything about him at all, you'd know that!"

"You're right," she agreed. "I don't know what I was thinking. I've been in a blind panic ever since I woke up this morning and my kid wasn't in her bed."

"I know what that feels like, right, Rory? Like that time you were out all night with Narcolepsy Boy."

"Mom that was a long time ago and it was _totally _innocent." Rory said. "I told you that over and over again."

"I know that now, but it didn't erase the panic I felt when my sixteen year old kid didn't come home all night."

"We're getting off the subject here," Luke interrupted. "Look, Anna, what happened? You said yesterday that she was practicing for the math competition. Did she not come home after that?"

"No, I mean yes, she came home. Then the first thing she did was ask if you'd called about the trip, then when I told what had happened, we got into this huge fight and she told me she hated me for taking you away from her and stomped off to her room. I figured she'd calm down after she'd had time to sleep on it, but when I woke up this morning, she wasn't there. Her bed hadn't been slept in and her bike was gone."

"And you didn't talk to her after the fight?" Lorelai asked.

"No, I know better than to try to talk to her when she's that mad. She screams, cusses like a sailor, and won't let you get a word in edgewise."

"Gee, I wonder where she gets that from," Lorelai said, nudging Luke.

"Hey," he said. "Don't look at me! I didn't teach her that!"

"Hello!" Rory chimed in. "We're getting off the subject again. Anna, you know April better than anyone, especially me considering I've never even _met _my future step-sister. Where would she go?"

"I've already been to all the places that I know she'd go; the bookstore, the library, the lake, the pool. I've called all her classmates that I know, her math team, her swim team, the science club, the chess club. I've called all her teachers that I have numbers for, my brother, and my mom. Nobody's heard from her since she left the math team practice yesterday. Then I thought since the fight we had was about visitation with Luke that she might come looking for him."

"Well, she didn't come here," Luke said. "I don't think she even knows where this place is."

"It wouldn't be too hard for her to find out. I did and April's way smarter than I am."

"How _did_ you know where I lived?"

"I knew your fiancée's first name after our conversation yesterday and I asked around. It seems that everyone I talked to knows and loves Lorelai. I must have talked to twelve people before one of them would tell me where she lived. It seems they all thought I was out to make trouble for you two."

"So who told you?"

"Some weird guy named Kirk."

"Oh, Ok, here's what we're going to do. Lorelai, you go to the inn and see if she's been there."

"Why would she go there?" Lorelai asked.

"Because I told her that I was an investor in the place, Rory, check the library and the bookstores, since they're you're stomping grounds."

"You got it!" Rory replied.

"Luke, I told you I already checked them," Anna argued.

"The ones here in Stars Hollow or the ones in Woodbridge?"

"Woodbridge. That's where we live."

"I know where you live, but if she did come to Stars Hollow, she may have gone to those places here. Now, Anna you check the lake and the public pool.

"What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to the apartment to grab my cell phone and see if she's left me a message on either the machine there or my cell."

"Good thinking."

"Um, Luke," Lorelai began.

"What?" Luke replied.

"How come you left your cell at the apartment? The point of a cell phone is so that people can reach you whenever."

"I know. I was just a little preoccupied with other things that I thought were more important. I…Look, can you save the cell phone lecture for later? We've got a missing kid to find!"

"Ok."

"All right, if anyone finds her, call me on my cell," Lorelai gave him a look. "I'll make sure I have it on me. If we don't find her in an hour we'll meet back at the diner and regroup."

They all agreed and headed their separate directions.

Luke walked into the diner and was immediately accosted by Caesar.

"Hey, Boss," He said. "I'm glad you're here. I need you to-"

"Not now, Caesar!" Luke cut him off.

"But…"

"Look, whatever it is, you can handle it! You've worked here long to be able to manage any problem on your own. That's what I pay you a manager's salary for! So manage!"

Luke pushed past him, headed upstairs into his half-empty apartment and quickly checked the light on the machine. No messages. _Damn! _He grabbed his cell phone from the kitchen table and was about to head out again when a slight movement to the left caught his attention. He turned and breathed a sigh of relief when he found his daughter sound asleep in Jess' old bed. He quickly hit the first speed dial on the cell phone he was still holding.

"Lorelai, it's ok. She's here at the apartment. You call Rory and let her know. I'll call Anna."

He made the call to Anna just as quickly as he had to Lorelai and dropped the phone back to the kitchen table and walked to the bed, sat down on the edge of it and gently shook his daughter awake.

"Hey," he said as she opened her eyes and sat up.

"Dad!" she cried and she flung her arms around his neck. "I was so afraid I'd never get to see you again!"

Luke smiled a little at her use of the word 'Dad,' as he hugged her back. She'd never called him that before. She'd always called him by his first name. It felt good to hear it, a little weird, but good all the same. He guessed he'd have to get used to hearing that title since Lorelai was pregnant, though he knew it would be a while before their child was able to talk. Like Lorelai had done the night before, April was sobbing into his shoulder. He held his daughter, rocking her lightly and just let her get it out. He didn't really know if he was handling this like he should. He still didn't have a clue when it came to fatherhood, but it felt right. When April had cried herself out, she pulled back and sniffled a little.

"I'm _so_ glad to see you," she said. "Mom told me she wasn't going to let us spend time together anymore. She was being a total bitch about it too."

"Hey, watch the language!"

"That's that same thing Mom said last night."

"Well, she's right. You're much too young to be using that kind of language, although, she's wrong about trying to keep us apart. You don't have to worry about never seeing me again. I'm not going anywhere. Now, that I found you, I'm not gonna give you up without a fight.

"Good, though technically, _I_ found _you._"

"Yeah, you sure did." He smiled a little as he remembered her coming into his diner in that ridiculous bike helmet that was twice the size of her head and yanking out his hair.

"Dad?" she said tentatively.

"Yeah?" he replied, still a little weirded out hearing anyone calling him 'Dad.'

"Is it ok that I called you 'Dad'?"

"Yeah, it's ok, but only if you feel comfortable with it. You can call me whatever you want. Hell, you can even call me 'Asshole' if you want"

"Now, who needs to watch their language?" April admonished him with a giggle. Unknown to the father and daughter sitting together on the bed, Anna slipped in the open door. She paused when she heard her daughter's laughter.

"You're right. I really need to watch that around you."

"Come on! It's not like I haven't heard it all before. Besides, I want you to be yourself around me. How else am I going to _really _know who my father is? The DNA test only told me who I have a genetic link to. Now, I want to know the man behind the hair sample." As Anna heard these words, she finally started to realize all the things that April was missing by not having her father around.

"You may change your mind once you _really _get to know me."

She giggled again. "I don't think so, but thanks for the warning."

"How'd you get in here anyway? I know I locked that door when I left yesterday."

"I got here last night after closing time and I found where you keep the spare key. Not a smart place to keep it by the way, over the door frame. Statistically speaking, that's the first place a burglar would look." Anna smiled. That was typical of her kid, finding a way to turn something ordinary into a math equation.

"Speaking of not smart things to do, you running away from your mom was one of them."

"I know. I just couldn't stand to be in the same house with her after the things she said about you. I just had to get away."

"I get that. Sometimes I need to get away from things too, but you're a kid. You can't just take off without letting someone know where you are. You're mom's been worried sick about you. We live in a crazy world full of crazy people where bad stuff happens to kids all the time."

Listening to Luke's words, Anna started to wonder why she's ever thought that he wouldn't be a good father to her kid. He was telling April the same stuff that she herself would've told her, although he was doing it a lot more calmly than she would have. She decided to let them be for the moment and slipped out of the room as quietly as she'd slipped in. She stepped back into the diner just as Lorelai came barreling through the front door nearly crashing into her.

"Oh, sorry," Lorelai said. "I didn't mean to nearly run you over."

"It's ok."

"Is Luke still upstairs with April?"

"Yeah, they're talking."

"Good. I'm glad she's ok. You must be relieved too. I know how I felt when my kid didn't come home one night. It was terrifying." She sat at her usual seat at the counter. "Hey, Caesar, can I get some coffee over here?"

"Sure thing, Lorelai," he said as he walked over and poured her a cup.

"Thanks," Lorelai took a sip and smiled. What Luke didn't know, wouldn't hurt him. Besides, it was only one cup and with the excitement of the day, she seriously needed a jolt.

Anna sat at the empty seat beside her. "So, I gather that you're a single mom too?" she asked.

"Yeah, for twenty-one years, though it's sometimes hard to believe my kid's old enough to drink now."

"Twenty-one?" Wow! You must have been a baby yourself when you had her."

"Yeah," she agreed. "I was sixteen, way too young to be a mom, but if I could go back in time, I wouldn't change it, because then I wouldn't have her, although, I might have picked a different father for her. One who might have taken more of an interest in her when she was growing up."

"He's not around?"

"He is _now_, but he wasn't much when she was a kid. Luke was always a better father to her than Christopher, even before we were a couple. He was always doing stuff for Rory, without even being asked to. You don't know how lucky you are, how lucky April is. Luke is a really good man who wants to be there for his kid. I wish Rory had had that with her dad." _I also know he'll be an amazing dad to our kid,_ she added to herself.

"I've been unfair to him," Anna admitted. "It's just that it's been me and April for so long, A _You and Me Against the World _kind of thing."

"I get that. Rory and I were the same way for ten years before Luke came into our lives. Great song reference by the way. You gotta love Helen Reddy."

Anna laughed. She wasn't sure Lorelai would get what she meant, but she was beginning to understand that the two of them has some a lot in common.

Luke walked down the stairs into the diner, with April on his heels. April smiled sheepishly at her mother, wondering how much trouble she was in.

"Hi, Mom," she said.

"Hi, Mom?" Anna said. "That's all I get? You sneak out of your bedroom, take off all night, worry me half to death and that's the best you can do?"

"I'm sorry for worrying you. I don't know what I was thinking. I just didn't want you to take my dad away from me when I just found him."

"I understand that, but you've got to understand that you can't just take off whenever you feel like it without giving me some clue as to where you are!"

"I know," she hung her head. "Dad already lectured me about it." Anna glanced at Luke over April's use of the word 'dad'. He shrugged and nodded toward April indicating that it was her idea. April looked back up at her mother. "So, how long am I grounded for?" she asked.

"Let's start with a month of no TV, no video games, and no hanging out with your friends unless I get confirmation that it's for a school event."

"A _whole _month?!" She looked at her dad, hoping he'd say something in her defense.

"Don't give me that look,' Luke said. "If it were up to me, I'd be locking you in your room for the rest of the year after the stunt you pulled."

"Ok," April conceded realizing she wasn't going to get a break from _either _of her parents. "What about the trip?" she asked her mom.

"You can still go. It's covered under the school event exception."

"That's not what I meant. I was wondering if you'd change your mind about Dad going with me."

Anna sighed. "I guess that would be all right, that is if he still wants to go." She looked at Luke, who then looked at Lorelai.

"What do you think?" He asked his fiancée.

"I told you what I thought yesterday. You _should _go," Lorelai replied.

"Yeah, but under the circumstances, I didn't know if you'd still be ok with me being gone for a week."

"Relax, Babe. I'm fine with it, but only if we get you some decent luggage between now and then. That word out duffel bag just isn't going to cut it. Besides, we're going to need to new luggage in couple of months anyway for our honeymoon."

"All right, you win," he said resigning himself to the fact that he was never going to win a shopping debate with her. "We'll go shopping for new luggage."

"Yes!" she said, throwing up her arms in triumph. It was then that he noticed the coffee cup in front of her.

"Lorelai, what's this? Is this what I think it is?" he asked indicating the cup.

"Gee, you'd think a man who owns a coffee shop would know what a cup of coffee is."

"That had better be decaf!"

"It is," she lied.

"Yeah, we'll see. Caesar!" he bellowed. Caesar came running over. He knew better than to keep his boss waiting.

"Yeah, Boss?" he answered.

"What did you serve Lorelai?"

"Uh…coffee? I swear I didn't mix up the pots this time. I remember how cranky she got the last time I accidentally serve her decaf. I wouldn't make the same mistake twice. I know how she gets when she needs her caffeine fix."

Lorelai looked down at her mug. _Busted, _she thought. Luke glared at her and snatched her coffee cup away.

"From now on, Caesar, she get nothing _but_ decaf!"

"But…"

"No buts, Caesar! I'm the boss and you'll do as I say!"

"Hey!" Lorelai whined. "I was drinking that!" She reached for the cup.

"_Was _being the operative word." He held the cup higher to keep it out of her reach.

"Fascist!" She muttered.

"Junkie!"

"Nazi!"

"Addict!"

"Caffeine depriver!"

"That's it? That's all you got?"He said with amusement.

"Well, I can't think of anything better. You know my brain doesn't function as well when I'm caffeine-deprived."

"Well, I fully intend to keep you caffeine-deprived." He said as he dumped the cup and its contents into the bus tub underneath the counter.

"What was that all about?" April asked. "Why are you being the caffeine police all of a sudden?"

"Well…uh…" Luke hesitated, staring at his daughter. He wasn't sure now was the right time to tell April about the baby, especially not in front of Anna. He was sure it would just start another screaming match. He looked back at Lorelai for support.

"She has a right to know, Luke and she should hear from you. Who knows how long it'll be before it's all over town, especially if Babette _did _hear us last night. You know she's got ears like a bat."

"Suddenly I'm reconsidering living next door to Babette," he grumbled. "But you're right; April should hear the news from me, first."

"Hellooo!" April said, trying to get her father's attention. "I'm standing right here! What news should I hear from you first?"

Luke took a deep breath and decided to bite the bullet. "Lorelai's pregnant. Now, before you say anything, I want you to know that this doesn't change anything between you and me. I still want to be a part of your life and I want you to be a part of our lives. I mean, you _are_ going to be this baby's big sister."

"Cool! I've always wanted to be a big sister and it's not like Mom is going to be getting busy anytime soon."

"Like it's _that _easy," Anna said. "What do you think I should do, April, just go up to some random guy and say, 'Hey, you wanna have a baby with me, because my kid really wants to be a big sister'?"

"No, of course not. That would be stupid. I just meant that you don't date a whole lot."

"Oh," she said simply. She wasn't sure yet how she felt about this new development. She was concerned about how having a new baby would affect Luke's relationship with April. While he'd just said it wouldn't change anything, she knew better. She knew from first-hand experience that having an infant around was hard and time-consuming, meaning that he would have less time for April. She turned to Luke. "So, is this why you came to me yesterday with the sudden interest in April getting to know Lorelai, because you knocked her up?"

"No, one thing has nothing to do with the other. In fact, I didn't know about the baby until after I went to see you. Lorelai told me when I got home last night."

"It's true, "Lorelai confirmed.

"I went to see you yesterday because Lorelai and I are trying to build a life together and April is a part of my life now. I want them to feel comfortable around each other."

"I get that, I'm just not sure _I _feel entirely comfortable with Lorelai yet." She turned to Lorelai. "No offense toward you, Lorelai, but I have to know when my kid leaves my house that she's with people I can trust."

"I understand," Lorelai said. "I remember when Rory's dad was engaged and his fiancée was pregnant and she was all about hanging with Rory and having her spend the weekends at their place, I was completely unnerved by it. I kept thinking 'who does this woman think she is? This is _my _kid and she's just some woman who's living with her dad'. Then I thought 'what if Rory gets attached to her and they don't make it as a couple, then Rory will be the one getting hurt.' I want you to know that I would never try to take your place. _You're_ her mother and I respect that and I promise that I won't try to stick my nose in where it doesn't belong. I'd just like to get to know Luke's kid as well as he knows my kid."

Anna sat quietly and thought about what Lorelai had said and how sharing her thoughts from the past had accurately described how Anna herself was feeling about this situation. She and Lorelai really _did _have a lot in common. As Anna contemplated all this, Rory walked in and sat next to her mother.

"Hey, Kid. Where've you been?" Lorelai asked.

"I went back to the house," she answered. "It occurred to me after you called that we left in such a hurry, we left all our breakfast stuff on the table. I figured Paul Anka would be having a field day with it, so I went home to check on the place. Sure enough there he was, sitting in the middle of the table devouring everything in sight. I just got done cleaning up the mess he made."

"Paul Anka?" Anna inquired. "The singer?"

"Our dog," Lorelai replied.

"_Your _dog, "Luke corrected.

"What's mine is yours, Hon."

"You guys have a dog?" April asked. "What kind?"

"A psychotic mutt who's sacred of his own shadow, "Luke groused.

"Paul Anka is _not _psychotic. He's just misunderstood. Besides, he was perfectly well-behaved last night when my parents were at the house, which surprised the hell out of me. I figured he'd go into hiding with my mother there."

"Yeah, your mother _is_ pretty scary," Luke commented.

"Speaking of Grandma and Grandpa," Rory said. "Did you know they're in town today?"

"What?" Lorelai asked in surprise. "Did you see them?"

"No, I just saw their Jag parked across the square in front of the real estate office when I was on my way here."

"Are you sure it was theirs?"

"Yes, Mom, I'm sure. How many Jaguars do you see cruising around Stars Hollow?"

"What would they be doing at the real estate office?" Luke asked.

"Oh God!" Lorelai exclaimed. "They want to move here."

"That's crazy, Lorelai! Why would they want to move here when they've got that big mausoleum of a house in Hartford?"

"Because of the baby, my mother must have told my dad about it and now that they know they're going to be grandparents again, they want to move here so they don't miss out on anything like they did when Rory was little."

"You don't know that that's what they're thinking. They may not even be here for the real estate office. They might have just parked there because there was nowhere else to park. You know how hard it is to find parking around the square."

"You're right. I need to just calm down. There's no way my parents would wanna move to Stars Hollow. They thrive on big city life. They'd hate it here."

"Yeah, they would. Besides it's not like I'm their favorite person in the world. I highly doubt they'd want to live anywhere near me."

"They're warming up to you, Luke," Rory said. "I think they're starting to see how good you've been to me and Mom over the years. The way you've always kept us fed and everything."

Luke mentally kicked himself. "Oh my God, You guys must be starving! We left the house to look for April before we had a chance to eat breakfast! Why don't you guys find a table and I'll get Caesar working on some food for you. You too, April," he said to his daughter. "You must be hungry, too."

"Starved, "she admitted as Lorelai and Rory got up from the counter and found a table to sit at and Luke went to the kitchen to put in an order for his girls. April hesitated. She was torn. She wasn't sure whether she should sit with them or at the counter seat next to her mother that Lorelai had vacated.

While April was trying to figure out what to do, Anna made the decision for her. She got up from the counter and asked Lorelai,"Do you mind if we join you?"

"Not at all," Lorelai answered. "The more the merrier, she said lightheartedly as Anna and April made their way to the table. She knew that if she was going to be allowed to get to know April, she'd have to win Anna's trust first. She thought inviting them to join her and Rory for breakfast would be a good first step. She just hoped she could keep her mouth shut about how she really felt about the fact that Anna had kept Luke from knowing he had a daughter for twelve years. She turned her attention to her future step-daughter. "So, April," she said. "Tell me about this math contest,"

Luke walked out of the kitchen and saw April chatting animatedly about the upcoming trip to Philly with Lorelai and Rory and smiled. He knew he and Anna still had a lot of issues to work out regarding visitation, but he was confident now that they could do it without getting lawyers involved. As he stood there silently watching his family, he just smiled and thought _Everything's going to work out. _

TBC

AN: For anyone who didn't get the Helen Reddy reference, _You and Me Against the World _is a song that she recorded about the relationship between a single mom and her child, circa 1974. You can find the lyrics here: .com/lyrics/helen_reddy/you_and_me_against_the_


	9. Chapter 9

Richard and Emily walked back to their car after a lengthy meeting at the realtor's office. They'd been shown photographs of several available properties in the Stars Hollow and the surrounding area. They' made appointments to look at a few of them to try to find one that would suit Luke and Lorelai and their expanding family. As they were about to get into their car, they were stopped by Kirk running after them.

"Mr. and Mrs. Gilmore!" he called out. "I just had an idea. There's a house you could see today if you'd like. I think it might be _the _one you're looking for. I mean, Luke almost bought it for Lorelai last year. In fact, he fought me over it, but when he backed out of the deal, I decided it wasn't right for me either. I've got the keys if you'd like to see it and it's not far. It's right here on the square as a matter of fact."

"What do you think, Richard?" Emily asked her husband. "Do we have time?"

"I think we do, Richard replied." I must say I'm interested in seeing the house that Luke wanted to buy for our daughter." He still wasn't quite comfortable with the fact that he'd gotten her pregnant before the wedding, but he was much calmer about it than he'd been the night before. He still intended to have a long talk with his son-in-law to be about his plans for the future. While Lorelai was an adult, he still felt it was his duty as a father, as well as his right, to make sure that she and her unborn child would be well cared for. He knew that Luke would never shirk his fatherly responsibilities, but he still had nagging concerns about the two of them starting out their marriage with so much weighing on them. That was the only reason that he'd agreed to Emily's request to try to buy them a house, even knowing that Lorelai might not appreciate the gesture. He was hoping it would lift some of the weight off the younger couple's shoulders. He glanced across the square toward the diner that was the primary source of Luke's income. What he saw made him smile. Luke, Lorelai and Rory were sitting at a table together with a younger girl Richard didn't recognize. _That must be April, _he thought. He couldn't tell what they were doing, but they all seemed to be happily enjoying each other's company like a real family. _Family, _he kept repeating the word in his head. He'd longed for years to see Lorelai settled down with a real family of her own. He'd always thought it would be with Christopher, but he knew now that while she would always care for Christopher, she just didn't have the right kind of love for him that a lasting relationship could be built on. He thought maybe she _could _have that with Luke. He wondered if she'd told him yet that he was going to be a father again, but he couldn't exactly ask him about it without spilling the beans and breaking his promise to Emily.

"Richard, are you coming?"

His wife's voice broke him out of his thoughts. She was already halfway to the house, while he still stood by the Jag. "Yes, I'm sorry. I was just lost in thought for the moment."

"So, I noticed, "she said with a glance toward the diner, realizing what had stopped him in his tracks. "She looks happy, doesn't she?"

"Yes, she certainly does. Let's go look at the house and see about keeping her that way." He took one more look at his future son-in-law laughing with the girls and then turned and followed his wife toward the house that he knew Luke had wanted for his family.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Luke and his girls were sitting at a table in his diner, a _Monopoly _board set up in the middle of it. Anna had left to open her store two hours ago after a leisurely breakfast where they'd all talked about a little bit of everything; the upcoming trip to Philly, Rory's success at Yale, Lorelai's inn, April's dream of being a scientist when she grew up, the new baby, and his and Lorelai's upcoming wedding. He'd been surprised when Anna left that she hadn't insisted on taking April with her, especially given how upset she'd been this morning when April was missing and how angry she'd been the day before when they'd had their fight. She had started to try to get April to accompany her back to Woodbridge but his daughter had begged to be allowed to visit longer in order to spend some time getting to know her future step-mother and step-sister. He could tell that Anna was reluctant to leave her daughter in their care but as April had continued to plead with her, she finally relented with the promise that they would check in with her throughout the day and make sure that April was home by ten O'clock that night. It occurred to him that during the excitement of the day, he'd never really properly introduced April to the Gilmore girls, but that didn't seem to matter. Lorelai and her daughter were naturally inclined to be social butterflies and had instantly made April feel at ease. He couldn't stop smiling. He knew being with Lorelai had ruined his reputation of being the world's surliest diner owner since Mel Sharples, but that didn't bother him. He was happy and he didn't care who knew it. He was pulled from his reverie by his daughter's voice.

"Hey!" she shouted. "Lorelai, you cheated!"

Lorelai acted shocked. "What?! I did not! I resent the insinuation that I would resort to cheating!"

"You did too! You rolled a ten and you moved eleven spaces!"

"No, I didn't! I only moved ten spaces. For a girl going off to a national math competition next week, you might want to consider brushing up on your counting skills."

"I know perfectly well how to count and I also know this game like the back of my hand! From one corner of the board to another is exactly ten spaces. You were on Free Parking so you should have land on Go To Jail, _not_ Pacific Avenue!"

"She's right, Mom," Rory agreed. "Now put that deed back and move your butt to jail where you belong."

"Where _I _belong? Look who's talking, Missy. Stolen any yachts lately?"

"Hey, I paid my debt to society. Now it's time for you to pay yours, so move it!"

"I can't believe you two. You're not even step-sisters yet and you're already ganging up on me!" Lorelai grumbled as she moved her dog shaped piece to the jail space on the board. Luke just laughed as he watched Lorelai get called out by their daughters.

"By the way, Lorelai," April said, waving an orange card in her face. "I've got a nice little _get out of jail free_ card over here that I'll sell you for forty-nine dollars."

"That's stupid! Why would I pay forty-nine dollars for that when I could just buy my way out for fifty?"

"Because it's a bargain, you'd save yourself a dollar. Think about it, with your rapidly dwindling cash flow, you need to save money wherever you can, especially if you want to un-mortgage that crappy skid row property you insisted on buying."

"This is extortion!" Lorelai complained as she counted out the money to give to April. "I'm starting to see a strong father-daughter resemblance," she added as she recalled Luke's vow to make Taylor pay through the nose to rent the building next door for his soda shop. "I'm also thinking there's something to this whole wicked step-sister thing from _Cinderella."_

"This is not extortion. This is just a shrewd business move." April replied smugly as she took her future step-mother's money and handed over the coveted _Chance _card. "Though, you might be right about the wicked step-sister thing."

"Hey," Rory chimed in. "_I _had dibs on being the wicked step-sister!'

"Too late, I got there first, though maybe we _could _take turns. Being a wicked step-sister _is _a lot of responsibility for one person.

"You're _both _evil!' Lorelai pouted. "Picking on a pregnant woman is just _mean!_"

"Don't start using that as an excuse," Rory admonished her. "Just because you're a little hussy, don't expect me to treat you any differently."

"Spoken by the young woman who's living in sin with her gigolo boyfriend!"

"Look, who's talking, Slutina! This is the second time you've gotten pregnant without being married!"

"But we're engaged! It's not slutty if you're engaged! I don't see a ring on your finger, Young Lady!"

"We'd better not be seeing one anytime soon either," Luke added. He knew Rory loved Logan, but he didn't think the spoiled rich kid was right for her. He couldn't stand the thought that this guy would probably break her heart over and over again if she would decide to settle down with him. Plus, he thought Rory was way too young to be thinking forming a permanent attachment to any guy. She still had so much to accomplish in her life, though he hoped she wouldn't wait as long as he and Lorelai had to find happiness either. He was nearly forty years old, as Lorelai had reminded him last night, yet he felt his life was really just starting. He'd been silent through most of the game, just enjoying watching the women he loved interacting with each other. _I've been an idiot, _he thought. _Why the hell did I wait so long to get them together? _

_"_Relax, Luke," Rory relied. "I'm not thinking about anything like that anytime soon."

"Glad to hear it."

"Though as overprotective as you've been with me over the years when it comes to boys, I shudder to think what's going to happen when April starts dating."

"How'd I get involved in this?"April queried.

"I'm just saying, if he's that way with me, when I'm not even his daughter, just imagine how insane he's going to be with you? I can just imagine him going after some poor unsuspecting boy with one his trusty baseball bats." Rory hated to admit it, but she was a little jealous of April and the fact that Luke had spent so much time with her lately to the exclusion of all else. She knew how much her mom had been hurting over this, but she'd only just recently admitted to herself that she'd been a little hurt by it too. Luke had always been like a father to her and she feared that now that he had April and he and her mom were having a baby together, he wouldn't need her anymore to be his pretend daughter. It wasn't that she didn't like April or that she wasn't excited about the new baby, she was just afraid that that left no room in Luke's heart for her.

"Hey! I'm not that bad!"

"Do you need to be reminded of the Bop-It incident?"

"Dad, it's your turn," April said, trying to get them back into the game and change the subject. She was a little uncomfortable with the direction the conversation had taken. She liked her future step-sister, but the more she heard about the past, the more jealous she got. Rory has a whole father-daughter relationship with her dad that she'd missed out on. She didn't blame Rory or her dad, she blamed her mother, but it was obvious even to a twelve year old that they had a bond that couldn't be broken. How could she possible compete with that?

"Oh, right," Luke rolled the dice and moved the racecar around the board passing _Go_ and landing on Baltic Avenue, Lorelai's mortgaged property.

"Woo-Hoo!" Lorelai crowed.

"No woo-hoo, you can't collect rent on a mortgaged property. Although, I _do _get to collect two-hundred dollars for passing _Go."_

"Crap! This is _so _wrong! Now, you're picking on me too! And I'm the mother of your unborn child."

"Suck it up! Those are the rules!" He laughed at Lorelai's dramatics. It was one of the quirky things he loved about her. He was so glad that he hadn't continued to deprive her of a chance to get to know his daughter. He should have done it long ago. He'd been wrong to do that to her when he'd always had a fatherly relationship with Rory, much more than her own father had. Almost as soon as he thought this Christopher came waltzing in the door as if he owned the place. Luke bolted out of his chair and approached him with fire in his eyes. "Get out!" Luke demanded.

TBC


	10. Chapter 10

"Get out!" Luke demanded.

"Excuse me?" Christopher said blankly.

"I said get out! You're not welcome here!"

"I just came to see my kid." He looked at his daughter for support to which Rory simply shrugged. Due to the commotion no one noticed Richard and Emily walk in, back from their viewing of the Twickham house across the square. The two of them shared a worried look, both wondering if Christopher was coming around to make trouble for Luke and Lorelai again. They still weren't pleased with him going behind their backs and taking over paying for Yale.

"There she is. You've seen her. Now you can leave!"

"I'm not going anywhere until I talk to my daughter."

"If Rory wants to talk to you, I'm not gonna stop her. That's a decision that's entirely up to her, but you're not gonna do it in here!"

Christopher looked again at his daughter. "Rory…"

"Don't look at me, Dad. It's his place. If he doesn't want you in here, that's his right." She loved her father, but she loved Luke too and she didn't want to see him hurt again. She knew if her dad was here, it wasn't just to see her. It never was. Sure, he'd come to visit her a few times at Yale, but inevitably the topic turned to her mother and he'd ask if she was still engaged to 'that diner guy'. It seemed her never wanted to be involved in her life, if he wasn't involved with her mother too.

Luke looked smugly at Christopher, walking a little closer to where he was standing. "The way I figure it, you've got two choices; you can be a big enough man to realize when you're not wanted and leave quietly or you can stay here where you know you're not welcome and I can forcibly remove you from my building." He knew that Christopher would always carry a torch for Lorelai and he was not about to let him come between them again when they were so close to getting things worked out.

"You can _try_!" Christopher retorted, advancing on Luke.

Lorelai saw what was about to happen and jumped out of her seat, stepping between her Luke and Chris.

"Stop it! Both of you!" Lorelai turned to Luke. "Luke, Baby, calm down."

"I'll calm down when this piece of trash is out of my diner!"

"Trash?! Look who's talking! I don't care that you think you're some big man because you got yourself engaged to Lorelai. You'll still never be anything but small town white trash! Why do you think Emily wanted you out of her life? Are you honestly naïve enough to think that the Gilmores will ever approve of someone like you?"

"I knew it!" Rory cried. "You're not here to see me! You're here to try your luck with Mom again! God, why can't you ever come to Stars Hollow just to be with me?"

"I _am _here to see you! Logan called me in a panic because you didn't come home last night. I came here to make sure you were ok and find out what was going on."

"Imagine that," Luke said. "Christopher doesn't know what's going on his daughter's life. Now, _there's _a big surprise."

"Like you've got any room to talk! I heard about the bastard kid you abandoned twelve years ago!"

Luke couldn't take it anymore. He lunged at Christopher, but Lorelai held him back. "No, Luke." She pleaded. "Don't! Not in front of the girls!"

Luke backed off. He was no calmer, but fighting in front of Rory and April would only make things worse, especially since Anna was already on his case about his temper. He glanced toward April who was looking a little shaken over the sudden drama. "You know something, Christopher. You've got a lot of balls just strolling into my place of business and upsetting my pregnant fiancée like this, particularly given the way you behaved the last time we were all in a room together." His statement had just the effect he'd hoped it would. It may be petty but it felt good that he finally had the upper hand over Christopher. He still hadn't forgotten Richard and Emily's vow renewal and the way that Chris had treated him as if he was just some passing fancy in Lorelai's life.

Christopher's eyes widened as he took in Luke's words. He looked at Lorelai. "Lor, you're pregnant?"

"Yeah, I am, "she replied wrapping her arms around her stomach and Luke slipped his arms around her placing his hands over hers. It was as if they were both trying to shield their unborn child from the tension in the room.

"Well, Luke, I guess you found one thing you're good, getting women knocked up!"

"You're no better, Dad!" Rory said jumping in to defend the only man who'd been a real father to her. "At least Luke's here with me and mom and April. He's trying to be a part of his kid's life. You never did that for me! And while you're here checking up on me, where's Gigi? Or did you forget that you have another daughter?" I sure haven't! She's the reason you abandoned me the last time!" She still hadn't gotten over the hurt he'd caused her when he'd once again promised her he'd stick around and yet had bailed on her again.

"Well, I'm here now! I'm paying for Yale now, aren't I? Your precious diner guy can't do that!"

"Big deal, Dad! Who cares if you've got money now? It's not like you did anything to deserve it! Your grandfather had to die for you to get it! Luke may not have that kind of money, but at least he _earned _what he does have! He built this place from the ground up with no help from anyone and made it successful! That's a whole lot better than sitting back on your ass and waiting for some rich relative t o die! Besides that, it takes more than writing a check to be a good father!"

"But I am still your father and it's time you started showing me a little respect!"

"It's time you earned it!"

"Rory!"

"Go home, Dad. Go home to the daughter who still needs you." She turned her back on her father, noticed her grandparents standing silently by the doorway. She was surprised they hadn't jumped in and said something. Seeing them, she thought of something else she wanted to say to Christopher. "By the way, if paying for Yale is such a big burden, I'm _sure_ my grandparents would be happy to take it over again."

"Of course we would," Richard agreed.

"Oh, and if you hear from Logan again, tell him I'll be home when I get home and if he gets lonely he can find some bridesmaids to keep him company."

Luke laughed at that. He guessed that Rory had made her decision about whether or not to forgive Logan. He was proud of her for standing up for herself.

"What the hell does that mean?" Christopher asked in bewilderment. He looked at the grin on Luke's face wondering what the scruffy diner man knew about his daughter that he didn't.

"It doesn't matter, Dad. Logan will know what it means."

"And for the record, Christopher, "Richard added. "While I can't speak for Emily, I _do _approve of Luke. He's proven more on more than one occasion that he loves my daughter unconditionally."

"I can't believe you would choose _him _as your son-in-law over me! You've never been a big fan of his before." Chris said shaking his head.

"It's true, Christopher. Luke is _not _the man I would've chosen for my only daughter to marry, but I've come to realize that I would've chosen _wrong_." He said this with a meaningful glance at Christopher indicating all too plainly that Christopher the wrong choice. "Now, if I'm not mistaken, you've been asked to leave this establishment. I would advise doing so. I hear the proprietor is extremely picky about the class of clientele allowed in here." Richard nodded toward Luke. "Good-bye, Christopher. Let's_ not _keep in touch."

Lorelai giggled as Chris made his way out the door. She was happy to have her father's approval for her upcoming marriage.

April, who'd be silently watching through this whole ordeal, finally opened her mouth. "Wow, are things always that exciting around here?"

Luke released Lorelai and walked over to his daughter. "Hey, about what Christopher said about you.." he hesitated.

"Dad, it's ok. I know it wasn't really aimed at me. He was just being a horse's ass."

"Jeez, we have got to do something about your language. You're worse than a sailor."

"I just call 'em like I see 'em. What else would you have called him?"

"Horse's ass pretty much sums it up," Rory agreed. They all laughed. " By the way, April, that was my dad."

"I pretty much caught that."

"Fun, huh?"

"He doesn't like _my_ dad very much, does he?"

"I don't think your dad's planning on joining his fan club anytime soon, either."

"You think?" They both giggled.

Luke smiled as he watched them together, then it hit him that Emily and Richard hadn't met April yet. He decided he'd better introduce them before he heard yet another lecture on his lack of proper social etiquette. He walked toward them. "Hey, I'd like you to meet someone." He walked with them back to where Rory and April were still chatting and laughing. 'This is my daughter, April. April, I'd like you to meet Lorelai's parents, Emily and Richard Gilmore."

"It's very nice to meet you, April," Emily said "_finally." _She added with a pointed glance at Luke.

"Emily!" Richard admonished his wife, and then turned to April. "I'm very pleased to meet you as well, April."

"Same here," April replied.

"I understand that you're quite the good student. Have you given any thought to what college you might like to attend some day?"

"Dad!' Lorelai cried, "Give her a break! She's only twelve."

"It's never too early to start considering these things, Lorelai. College isn't really that far off for this young lady."

"I actually _have _given it some thought," April replied. "I haven't really decided for sure where I want to go to college, but I do know that it has to be some place that will help get me into Yale Medical School when I'm done."

Richard beamed, "Yale, really?"

"Yeah, Rory and I were talking about it during breakfast. I think it's so cool that she goes to Yale when that's been my dream for a long time. The funny thing is, that she told me Harvard had been her dream, so who knows, maybe I'll end up there instead, but I'd prefer Yale."

"You know _I _was a Yale man."

April nodded. "Rory told me."

"But April can choose to go to school wherever _she_ wants," Lorelai interjected. "That will be between her and her parents."

Richard glanced at Lorelai and then turned back to April. "So, you have aspirations of becoming a doctor?"

"Scientist, actually, preferably, molecular biologist."

"Excellent! You know Yale has one of the finest medical schools in the country."

"I know. I've done my research. That's why I want to go there."

Emily loved to hear Richard talk about his love for Yale, but she felt it was time to change the subject, as Lorelai was starting to get a little irritated."So, Luke, after our conversation last night, I'm just _dying _to try some of that turtle cheesecake of yours." She sat in the seat next to April that Luke has been sitting in before Christopher's impromptu visit.

"Really?" He said in surprise. Emily never wanted to eat anything from his 'greasy spoon' as she'd one called it.

"Well, the girls made it sound so good."

"Ok, I made a couple of them yesterday morning. I'll see if there's any left." He walked over to the dessert case behind the counter. "Anybody else want anything?"

"Boysenberry pie, if you've got it, "Lorelai said as she sat back down in the seat she'd vacated earlier next to her mother.

"Same here, Luke," Rory added, sitting between her mother and April.

"April?" Luke inquired.

"Do you have any of that yummy carrot cake?"

"Yeah, I think so."

"She's definitely your kid, Luke." Lorelai said. "Nobody in their right mind would think that carrots and cake should go together."

"Hey, a lot of people like carrot cake. Besides, it's a ton of fattening cream cheese frosting on it."

"I know, it's just the carrot part I can't stand."

"It wouldn't kill you to eat a vegetable once in a while."

"I'm _so _anxious to have this conversation again."

Not wanting to argue with her in front of her parents, he changed the subject. "Richard, would you like anything?" He carried over dessert plates for the ladies with their fattening foods of choice.

"No, thank you, Luke, though I would like a moment of your time, in private, when you're done with that."

"Um, Sure," He said nervously. _Here it comes, the big lecture on responsibility because Lorelai's pregnant. _"Just let me get some forks for their desserts." When he had done this, he walked back over to his future father-in-law dreading what was to come. "So do you want to go upstairs or there's the storage room…" Luke was getting more nervous by the minute.

"It's a beautiful day outside. Why don't we take a walk?"

"Dad…" Lorelai started.

"Not to worry, Lorelai. You'll still have your fiancé in one piece when we get back. There are just a few things I'd like to talk to him about man to man."

"Richard, you _will _behave yourself," Emily added in a tone that suggested this was a demand, not a request. She remembered his irrational behavior from the night before when he'd learned of Lorelai's pregnancy.

"I promise, I'll be a perfect gentleman, Emily."

"Good."

"Shall we go, Luke?"

"Yeah," Luke replied as he followed Richard out the door.

"Yes!" Lorelai cried as she scrambled up from her chair toward the coffee pot and poured herself a cup and hurried back to the table.

"Thanks, Mom!" Rory said as she took the cup from her mother.

"Hey, that's mine!"

"Not anymore. You know Luke will go ballistic if he finds out you've been drinking coffee and I personally do not want to incur the wrath of Luke."

"Et tu, Brute? Just because Luke's being a complete coffee Nazi , doesn't mean you have to be."

"Luke's quite right, Lorelai," Emily chimed in. "You shouldn't drink coffee while you're pregnant."

"I just can't win!" Lorelai sighed.

Richard and Luke strolled leisurely around the square, neither knowing quite where to begin the conversation that they both knew was long overdue. They hadn't had a real conversation about his and Lorelai's future since that Friday night dinner back in January when Richard had scared the life out of him with all the horror stories about insurance scams. Luke decided he should get the ball rolling, then maybe that would encourage Richard to say what was on his mind.

"Richard, I want to thank you for what you said back there. For sticking up for me with Christopher, I mean."

"You're quite welcome, Luke. I meant every word of it. However, I'd be lying if I said that I didn't have some concerns about you and Lorelai." He stopped and seated himself on a park bench conveniently situated directly across the street from the Twickham house. "And some questions," he added as his future son-in-law took a seat next to him.

"I'll do my best to answer any questions that you have."

"Good. Let's start with you beating up a car and getting arrested."

"Wow! You don't pull any punches, do you?"

"Not when the future happiness of my only daughter is at stake."

"Well, it all started with the day I realized I was wearing someone else's socks," he said as he launched into the whole sordid story. Richard sat quietly and listened while Luke told him every detail, including his later confrontation with Nicole over it when he'd gone to retrieve the few things he'd had at the townhouse in Litchfield. "The worst part of it was that she acted like she hadn't done anything wrong, like inviting another man into our bed was somehow justified, or like it was _my _fault. She couldn't even admit that what she'd done was wrong. I know I wasn't the greatest husband in the world to Nicole, I was distant and moody, but I didn't deserve that!"

"Well, I think I understand why you beat up his car," Richard said.

"I never thought of myself as a jealous man until then, but seeing her walking into _our _house with that guy, I just lost it! That was not one of my finer moments."

"I had a not so fine moment like that when Emily and I were separated."

"Really? You didn't beat up a car too, did you?"

"Not in the same way you did. I purposely rear-ended Emily's car." He said with a smile, remembering that it was that moment that has led to their reconciliation.

"I bet she took that well."

"No, she thought I was insane, and I probably was at the time." He told Luke the whole story beginning with him finding out from one his colleagues that his wife has been dating and ending with the "accident" that had gotten them back together.

"I never knew you had a dark side," Luke said as he reflected on the story Richard had just told him. "You always seem so together, so in control."

"We all have our dark sides, Luke. I have to say that over the past few months I've gained a certain respect for you."

"How's that?"

"You knew almost from the beginning of your relationship with Lorelai that it was going to be difficult for you to gain our approval, yet you never backed down. You followed your heart. I admire that. If you'll indulge me a little, I'd like to tell you a little story about when I was a young man at Yale. I think it will help you understand what I mean."

"Ok." Luke replied.

"I was engaged to a young woman of whom my parents approved whole-heartedly. We'd planned on getting married right after graduation. I'd known her since I was a child as she'd been the daughter a couple that my parents knew, very much like how Lorelai met Christopher. My mother, Lorelai the first, the woman your Lorelai was named after had already had an engagement announcement printed in the paper and was planning the perfect society wedding alongside my fiancée's mother. At that point, I never had a doubt that I would marry her and follow our parents' plans for us. That was until I went to a party one night and I saw the incredibly beautiful woman wearing this amazing blue dress. I'll never forget that moment. I think I fell in love with her the first time I saw her. She was smart, funny, vivacious and bubbly, everything my fiancée was not, as she'd been brought up to be a proper lady and taught to conduct herself accordingly. I learned that this young lady who'd sparked my interest, though she'd been reared in the same way and also came from family money, had a bit of a reputation for being a beer-guzzling party girl, as well as having something of a violent temper. She'd been kicked off the girls' hockey team for elbowing another girl in the neck after a match. She was talkative and flirty, and sometimes completely inappropriate. She made it very clear that she always got her way with men and that she was determined to have me, regardless of the fact that I was already spoken for. After that night I couldn't stop thinking about her. I knew almost from the moment I first met her that I couldn't marry the girl that my parents expected me to. I broke it off with shortly after that and starting dating this reckless girl, not caring what anyone thought. Before long we were making wedding plans of our own, much like you and Lorelai are doing now. For the first time in my life, I was in love and truly happy. I thought everything was going swimmingly, until the night before the wedding when I received this horrible letter from my mother, telling me what a mistake I was making and that the woman of my dreams was just 'not a Gilmore'. In this letter she urged me leave my bride at the altar and resume plans to marry the girl she'd chosen for me, regardless of the scandal it would cause to cancel my wedding at the last minute. I realized in that the moment that I had a decision to make. I'd never disappointed my mother in my life, but I couldn't bear the thought of letting this stunning woman who'd captured my heart slip away from me." Richard paused in his storytelling for a moment reflecting on the tough decision he'd had to make that night.

Luke was intrigued, he _had _to know what happened, though he had a feeling that he already knew. He was sure that Emily had been the jilted fiancée who conducted herself as a proper lady. "So what did you do?"

"I followed my heart. I married the love of my life and we've been happily married for most of our forty-one years together and we had a beautiful daughter together that we named after my mother as a peace offering almost thirty-eight years ago."

"Wait a minute! You're telling me that _Emily _was the wild beer-guzzling part y girl with the violent temper?" Luke was shocked. He couldn't imagine Emily Gilmore drinking beer or beating up another girl over a sports competition.

"She was, and if you ever mention any of this to her, I'll have to have you killed."

Luke laughed. "I won't say a word."

"Of course, she calmed down quite a bit after we were married and started making plans to start a family. She joined the DAR with her mother and became the model society wife, though every once in while she's still got that wild reckless streak in her, something that Lorelai inherited from her."

"Wow," Luke said still contemplating this new information he'd just learned about his future mother-in-law. He'd never be able to look Emily the same way again.

"_That's_ why I admire you, Luke. You knew that Emily and I didn't approve of your relationship with our daughter, yet you didn't let that stand in your way. You continued to pursue your romance with Lorelai and look where it's lead. The two of you are going to be married in just two short months and you're starting a family of you own. I won't lie though, and tell you that I'm pleased that this child of yours was conceived before the wedding, but I am happy about the idea of having another grandchild. I've always thought that Lorelai should have more children."

Luke shifted nervously in his seat. "About that, the baby, I mean. I want you to know that I fully intend to responsibility for taking care of Lorelai and our kid. I've actually been looking at my finances a lot lately since I found out about April and I know that I don't have the kind of money that you and Emily have or that Christopher has, but I make a decent living and I've got some money saved, plus I've got the rent coming in every month from the soda shop and aside from paying for the insurance and the property taxes on the building, that money goes straight in the bank."

"Your tenant doesn't pay for his own insurance? Maybe you should rethink your lease agreement with him."

"No, he pays for his own insurance on the shop, but that only covers his own equipment. If he set fire to the building or something, I'm screwed, because his insurance wouldn't cover that. Not to mention the fact that if there were extensive damage, it could affect the diner too, since the buildings are connected. That diner is my livelihood. I can't take a chance on something happening to it that would take it away from me, especially now that we're expecting a baby."

"That's very wise, making sure that your assets are protected, although you needn't have given me the speech about your finances. I have no doubt from what I've observed that you are a hard-working man and that you take a great deal of pride in your work. I'm also quite sure that you will do whatever it takes to adequately provide for your growing family. These are not the things that I'm concerned about."

"Then what it is?" Luke asked. He was a little befuddled thinking that Richard was going to give him yet another lecture about his financial future and the idea of franchising his diner.

"It's you and Lorelai that I'm worried about. I'm concerned about your future as a couple."

"You don't think we'll make it?"

"I think you'll try your best, but I know that you and Lorelai are going to face some difficult challenges in the coming months. Even though, you've been together for a while, you're really just starting to truly build a life together. Beginning a new marriage is about a lot more than simply saying 'I do' and moving in together. It's about putting the other person above yourself and sometimes compromising when you don't want to and sometimes giving up on what you want entirely to meet your partner's needs."

"I'm starting to get that," Luke said, remembering his conversation with Jess yesterday and recalling that the books they'd been talking about had mentioned the same thing.

"The next few months are going to be particularly hard on you, even though Lorelai is the one carrying the baby. Pregnancy does scary things to a woman. You'll start to notice subtle changes to her body before anyone else does"

"Actually, I already have," Luke stated recalling their lovemaking the night before. "I've notice that her hips a little bit wider, her breasts just a little bit fuller, and I should probably shut up now. You're her father. You don't want to hear this stuff." He was awed by the fact that Lorelai was carrying his child, but he figure talking about his daughter's body was not a good way to stay in Richard's good graces. "Sorry," he added sheepishly,

Richard laughed. "Don't you think it's a little late to be apologizing to me for sleeping with my daughter?"

"Yeah, I guess." Luke relaxed.

"I've accepted the fact that you and Lorelai have an intimate relationship. And you're both well over the legal age of consent, so that part's really none of my business."

"Good, because I prefer to keep private stuff private."

"That's as it should be. What goes on between a man and a woman behind closed doors should stay behind closed doors."

"Well, I was never one of those guys to brag about their conquests, like a lot of guys do. I get creeped out by my brother-in-law talking about my sister. It's weird, you know? I don't think you should talk about that stuff to other people."

"I agree. The point that I was trying to make before was that no man can ever truly know what a woman goes through during pregnancy. It not only affects her body, but her mind as well. She has crazy hormones surging through her body, making her emotional and unpredictable and Lorelai is going to need your support through all of that even when you may think that she's completely lost her mind. She may do strange things that make no sense to you and she'll have weird food cravings that will make you sick to think about, but she'll need you to be understanding and just agree with it all as if it's the most normal thing in the world. If she wakes you up in the middle of the wanting a pickle and peanut butter sandwich, by God, you'd better get up and make her a pickle and peanut butter sandwich"

"I think I understand."

"Oh, and one other thing and this may violate the whole keeping private things private deal, but it's important."

"I'm listening."

"There will come a time in the course of her pregnancy that her cravings will turn from food to satisfying _other_ appetites, so to speak." Luke blushed as he got what Richard was saying. "So, here's a little advice from a man who's been there. When that happens, don't ever turn her down, even if you've had a bad day, or you're tired and barely have the strength to stand up. I made that mistake once when Emily was expecting Lorelai and it turned into the biggest screaming match we've ever had. She kept yelling at me about how I didn't want her anymore because she was fat and undesirable; when the truth is I'd never found her more beautiful. I'd just had a long and very difficult day at work and sex was the last thing on my mind. But the pregnancy hormones had gotten the best of her and I had a hard time convincing her that it wasn't about her."

"Thanks for the advice he said. Maybe we'd better get back. The girls are probably wondering what's going on."

"Probably, I did want to ask one more question, though. Have you given any thought to your living situation? While I realize you've done a great deal of remodeling, that house you're in now is still not big enough to provide room for your expanding family."

"Not yet, things have been a little crazy and I just found out about the baby last night. I'm still kind of processing everything." He glanced across the street to the Twickham house where he'd imagined him and Lorelai living at one time. This action was not lost on Richard.

"Well, it's something to think about," Richard said simply as he stood up, preparing to make his way back across the square to the diner. Now was not the time to discuss his and Emily's excursion today. They still had time.

TBC


	11. Chapter 11

After their talk, Luke and Richard had returned to the diner to find the girls had finished their desserts and resumed the Monopoly game with Emily taking Luke's place, though Rory had had to explain the rules to her grandmother. Emily had offered to give up her seat and allow Luke to take over again, but he declined.

"That's ok," He said. "I'm not that into board games anyway." He really wasn't. He was more into outdoor activities but he knew that this was part of being a father, sometimes doing things he had no interest in and April loved Monopoly.

"But you were doing so well!" Emily said, indicating the stacks of fake money Luke had acquired before the drama of Christopher's unscheduled visit.

"Seriously, it's cool. I need to head over to Doose's anyway to see if Taylors's got any empty boxes I can snag so I can get the rest of my stuff from the apartment packed up and moved over to the house." Aside from that he wanted to talk to Taylor about the permits he needed, now that Lorelai had agreed to getting married in the square.

"You don't have any here from your deliveries?" Lorelai asked, remembering that he usually had some kind of early delivery on Saturday mornings, which had just been the day before. She'd been sound asleep at the time and he hadn't said anything about it so she just assumed that it had been business as usual.

"No. My dairy delivery was delayed and I won't get it now until tomorrow and my other deliveries aren't until later in the week."

"So, that means you'll be getting up before the crack of dawn tomorrow, then?" She wondered if that meant he'd use the delivery as an excuse to spend the night in the apartment instead of at the house with her like he used to do when he was married to Nicole.

"Just one of the many fun things about running this place," he said dryly. "I'll try not to wake you when I leave. I'm gonna head over to the store now. I'll be back soon."

"Ok," she said with a smile and reached up to him. He planted a quick kiss to her lips, trying to keep it PG since they had an audience, and headed out the door.

After he had left, Richard grabbed a chair from the next table over and sat next to his wife. "So who's winning?"

"She is," April said, pointing to Emily. "But it's not quite fair since she took over for someone else." She wasn't quite sure what to think of Emily. Since she'd occupied her father's former seat at the table, she'd kept looking at her like she expected to sprout horns or something. It was a little unnerving to be under such scrutiny. She felt like one of the bugs she'd examined under a magnifying glass. She thought Lorelai was pretty cool but her mother was something else entirely. She had a hard time thinking of them being related.

"The three of you asked me to," Emily protested. "You wanted to finish the game."

"You didn't have to," Lorelai said.

"I want to be involved in your life and if this is something you enjoy doing…" Emily didn't complete the thought. In spite of their talk yesterday, she couldn't seem to make her daughter understand that she wanted to be included in her life, and if that meant playing insipid games that was what she'd do.

"Yeah, I _so _enjoy losing all my money to a gold-digging twelve year old," she said with a laugh, gesturing to April's pile of money that rivaled the one Luke had left behind.

"You just made some bad business decisions," April said, trying not to dwell on the gold-digging comment. Lorelai had said it in a joking manner, but she couldn't help but wonder if there was more to it. She'd just met Lorelai today and though, she'd done everything she could to make her feel welcome, she didn't know quite how to take her yet. She hoped that her future step-mother didn't think she'd gone looking for her father for money or the things that he could give her. As she'd told her mother, she really just wanted to know where she came from. Her father wanting to be involved in her life was just an added bonus. She shrugged it off and said, "The real estate game's a tricky business."

"So true," Richard agreed. He sat and watched as they continued their game, wondering how Luke and Lorelai were going to adjust to this new family dynamic. He sensed that, even though they seemed to be enjoying themselves, there was still some tension in the room and things being left unsaid. He knew it they had a lot to work out, but he felt better after his heart-to-heart with Luke. He hadn't meant to share so much of his own experiences with his future son-in-law, but he'd found it was easier to talk to him than it ever had been. Luke seemed a lot more relaxed here in his home town than he had on the previous occasions that they'd talked. He always seemed nervous and uncomfortable at his and Emily's house. He'd thought that maybe that was just part of Luke's personality, but seeing him here in his element, he realized that it was the environment that made all the difference. He reflected on Lorelai's defense of Stars Hollow the previous evening and it occurred to him that she was more relaxed here too. He knew now without a doubt that whatever obstacles life would throw at them, they'd have a better chance of overcoming them here where they both felt at home.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The day passed in a flurry of activity. As a group, they'd packed up the apartment and loaded boxes into to Luke's beat up Chevy and hauled them over to the house. Richard and Emily had even volunteered to help, though Emily was more concerned with the condition of the apartment. She kept saying words like "quaint" and "charming" which he knew was Emily Gilmore slang for "dumpy" and "crappy," but he'd kept his mouth shut. He was really more worried about making sure that Lorelai didn't do anything to strenuous that could put their unborn child at risk. He was surprised at Richard, not thinking that he'd want to take a chance on messing up his nice clothes, but he'd taken off his coat and tie, rolled up his sleeves, donned one of Luke's aprons from the kitchen and dived right in. They were all now gathered at the house unpacking, the remainder of the Chinese food they'd had for dinner tucked away in the fridge. Lorelai and Emily were upstairs unpacking in the bedroom, while Rory and April were in the kitchen, and he and Richard were in the living room setting up Luke's trophy shelf.

Richard looked at these remnants of Luke's past as he helped unpack them and said, "Wow, you were quite the athlete in your day, weren't you?"

"I guess," Luke replied.

"Which reminds me, when are we going to play golf again?"

Luke shifted uncomfortably, "Uh...I'm not sure that's a good idea. I think you probably noticed last time that golf's really not my game. I'm much better a swinging a baseball bat than a golf club."

"Well, golf is not an easy sport. That's where practice comes in handy."

"I'll make you deal," he said as he heard Emily and Lorelai on the stairs. "I'll spend some more time on the driving range if you will spend a couple of hours with me at the batting cages."

"You drive a hard bargain, Luke. I'm in, though I warn you, I've never so much as picked up a baseball bat in my life."

"That's where practice comes in handy," Luke said, throwing Richard's words back in his face with a laugh.

"Wait a minute!" Lorelai said with a gleeful smile directed at her father. "_You're _going to the batting cages with Luke? I want to go with you. I've _so _got to see that!"

"Absolutely not," Richard replied. "The whole male bonding ritual doesn't work if there's a woman present."

"Fine," Lorelai said with a pout.

"Lorelai, what's that?" Luke asked noticing the picture frame she had in her hand.

"It's the picture of us that was on your dresser. I thought it should be displayed down here instead of being hidden upstairs where no one can see it," she explained while she walked over to the mantle and started shifting the other pictures there to make room for it.

"I just put it up there because I didn't want to disturb all your pictures of Rory you're got down here."

"I was wondering about that picture," Emily said. "I noticed it yesterday. Was it from some festival or something?"

"No, "Luke answered. "It was taken at my sister's goofy renaissance-themed wedding. It was kind of our first unofficial date. "

"That was _not _a date," Lorelai contradicted him.

"Oh, come on, Lorelai, it was _too _a date. We ate, we drank, we talked, we laughed, we danced, and I walked you home that night and asked you for another date. All very date-like things."

"First of all, when you walked me home, you asked me to a movie, which is not necessarily a date. Friends go to the movies together all the time. Second, you never said or did anything throughout the whole night that indicated you thought the wedding was a date."

"You're right about friends going to movies together, _but _you and I had never gone to a movie together. On the second point, why would I have asked you to go to my sister's wedding with me, a woman you'd only met a couple of times, if I didn't think it was a date?"

"Ok, you've got a point there, but if you were thinking is was a date, why didn't you try to kiss me when we said good-night? That's a very date-like thing too."

"So by your logic, because I didn't act like an animal on our first date, it couldn't have been a date? I was trying to be a gentleman! And if you think back, you should remember that I _did _kiss you a week later the night of the test run on the front steps of the inn and you kissed me back and we would have kissed again if it hadn't been for naked Kirk coming flying down the stairs at us."

"Naked Kirk?" Emily questioned. "How did we miss that? We were at the test run."

"This all happened after you guys left," Lorelai explained. Lorelai laughed remembering that night. She turned to Luke. "You were so incredibly cute that night, ranting about the flowers, and the book and Jason."

"Jason?"

"Yes, Mom, Jason, He showed up there uninvited that night. You saw him there, remember?"

"I remember, but I'd assumed that you were still dating him at the time. I had no idea you were already involved with Luke then."

"Luke and I weren't really _involved _yet. We were just beginning to start something. I hadn't been broken up with Jason very long and he'd just gotten divorced a month before, so it was all still very new." Rory and April walked into the room, now finished with unpacking and putting away Luke's dishes and kitchen utensils.

"For the record, I was not trying to be _cute _that night," Luke said. "I was trying to tell you how I felt about you."

"Well, trying or not, you _were cute _that night. In fact you're still pretty cute," She said with a smile as she lightly brushed her lips against his in a sweet kiss.

"Ewww! Mom, come on!" Rory said in mock disgust. "Not in front of the children!"

Everyone laughed at that. April looked at Rory. "Are they always like this?" she asked indicating Luke and Lorelai realizing that there was such much about her father she still didn't know.

"You mean all smoochy?"

"No, I meant the arguing," she replied nervously.

"Please, that wasn't arguing. That was just typical Luke and Lorelai banter. They're not arguing unless they're screaming at the top of their lung and slamming doors. They don't fight very often, but when they do, everybody else better look out."

"Hey, we're not that bad!" Luke protested.

"Have you forgotten when you and Mom broke up last year and you were in such a foul mood you kept throwing everyone out of the diner if they looked at you funny? And the food! Oh my God, was the food awful and I never thought I'd ever say that about food from Luke's"

"Awww," Lorelai cooed. "Somebody was missing me."

"Shut up," Luke grumbled.

"You missed me! You missed me!" Lorelai chanted.

"Yeah, I missed you," he conceded. "I think I showed you just how much the night we got back together!"

"Again I say ewww!" Rory said.

"Ditto!" April said. She looked around the room at the pictures of Rory and Lorelai and she noticed the one Lorelai had just placed on the mantle of her and Luke and sighed. This was her dad's home, yet there was nothing of her in it. Her mother's house was littered with pictures of her over the years. Seeing her dad so comfortable here with Lorelai and Rory, she wondered if she was just an intrusion in their lives or if there would someday be pictures of her here too. She hoped so. As much as she loved her mom, it had always been just the two of them and she longed to be a part of a real family. Her thoughts were interrupted by Emily's voice.

"You played hockey?" She asked Luke, remembering her own hockey playing days. She'd been looking at the trophies he and Richard were still unwrapping and setting up on the shelf.

"Yeah, Ice hockey. I only played my sophomore year. I was into it for a while until I skated into a tree when I was practicing and broke my nose." Richard handed him the last trophy and he set it on the shelf and turned back toward Emily.

"I played field hockey in college, you know?"

"Yeah?" Luke said with a glance at Richard indicating he intended to keep his promise not to say anything about his revelations regarding Emily's wilder side.

"Like you, I didn't play for very long. I never broke anything, though. I imagined that must have been painful."

"Oh, yeah, it was. That pretty much ended my interest in the sport. That's when I switched to track. I was pretty good too," he said gesturing to some of the other trophies.

"For a geek sport, "Lorelai quipped earning a scowl from Luke.

"I always thought baseball was you primary interest," Emily commented.

"It was, I played from the time I was eight playing in little league all the way up through my senior year of high school, but I wanted to try other stuff too. I actually was offered baseball scholarships to both University of Hartford and Central Connecticut State."

"You didn't accept?" Emily asked, wondering why Luke hadn't gone to college if that were the case. She'd always assumed his lack of higher education had to do with money

"I did. I went for a year in Hartford, commuting from home. I was studying business management since my dad had always wanted me to take over his business someday, but then my dad got sick and my sister ran off with that bum Jimmy Mariano and got pregnant with Jess. Plus the hardware store was in trouble. I had no choice but to leave school. I was needed here."

"You never thought of going back?"

Luke shook his head. "Jimmy up and left Liz the day Jess was born and my dad died and I had to deal with all the funeral stuff and settling his affairs. I had to shut down the store and I ended up selling my parents house and sending half the money to Liz just so she could feed her kid. I converted my dad's old office into an apartment and put the furniture that wouldn't fit up there into storage. I couldn't stand the thought of living in that house alone with my whole family gone. "

"Is that when you opened the diner?" Emily was intrigued. She knew he'd lost both of his parents at a young age, but she didn't really consider how much he'd given up. Seeing the memorabilia from Luke's youth had made her curious about his past. She wondered what had turned him from a promising young athlete into the hermit Lorelai has described in their conversation the previous evening.

"No, I didn't do that until about four years later. I hadn't even thought about what I was going to do with my dad's building at that point. I went to work for some friends of my parents who owned a restaurant and just saved my money except for what I needed to live on. It wasn't until I worked there for a couple of years that I considered opening a restaurant of my own. They really helped me out. I learned everything I know about running a restaurant from them."

"They sound wonderful. Are they still around?"

"Yeah, they're still running their place. You'll probably meet them at the wedding."

"Speaking of the wedding, "Lorelai said. "Mom, I'm going to need your help."

"You need _my _help with planning your wedding?" Emily asked, incredulously. She smiled never imagining that Lorelai would even think of letting her help.

"Don't get too excited, Mom, and don't start thinking that I'm going to let you hire some over the top wedding planner. Most of our plans are made, but what I need help with is the guest list. That's the stuff you're so good at. You know all the aunts and cousins and other relatives who should be invited and how to do seating charts that won't cause bloodshed at the reception."

"Just make sure you keep your cousin Marilyn away from me," Luke said with a grimace. "That woman is scary!"

"She's not _that_ bad."

"She kept hitting on me all through your parents' vow renewal and she grabbed my ass twice when you weren't looking."

"That's Marilyn," Richard said with a laugh. "She's never been known for her subtlety."

"That's certainly true," Emily agreed. She turned to her daughter. "Lorelai, I'll call you tomorrow and we can set something up to go over the guest list, but your father and I should really be getting home now."

"So soon?" Lorelai said with a sarcastic tone. She'd spent a good portion of the last two days with her parents without them fighting, but she knew it couldn't last forever, especially now that she'd admitted that she needed her mother's assistance.

Emily glared at her daughter as she and Richard made their way to the door. "Tomorrow, Lorelai," She said firmly.

"Ok, I'll talk to you tomorrow." The Gilmores said their goodbyes and left.

"Hey, listen," Luke said. "It's getting late. I should be getting April back to her mom."

"Ok, Rory and I will just finish cleaning up around here now that we've got everything unpacked."

"Be careful, Lorelai."

"Hey, I'm pregnant, not fragile. I think I can handle picking up a few empty boxes and carrying them outside."

"I'm being too overprotective, aren't I?"

"A little bit, but it's sweet," she said as she reached for his hand and gave it a gentle squeeze.

"Oh, Dad," April said. "Don't forget, we need to stop by the diner and get my bike out of the storage room."

"What's your bike doing in the storage room?"

"I stashed it there last night. I didn't want to leave it out on the street all night."

"Ok, we'll stop by there on the way out of town." He replied as he grabbed his keys from the entry table and the two of them headed out.

"Wow," Rory said after they were gone. "Crazy day."

"You can say that again, Kid," Lorelai replied. "Come on, let's get to work. If I'm gonna get used to this wife thing, I should start practicing keeping a nice home for my man."

"Right, "Rory said skeptically. "I see that lasting about as long as a Spinal Tap drummer."

"Why do you have to be so mean to your pregnant Mommy?"

"It's gonna be a long nine months if you keep that up."

"Hey, Rory?"

"Are you really ok with all of this? You know, Luke moving in, the baby, hanging with April and all that? That's a lot of changes all at once."

"Yeah, Mom, I'm fine. I'm glad you're happy."

"Oh, I just had a thought! What if I ask April to be a bridesmaid? Then we could get her a dress to match yours and have the two of you walk down the aisle together, kinda of a step-sister bonding thing."

Rory was a little hurt by that, but tried not to show it. Her mom was so happy that she'd finally gotten to spend some time with her future step-daughter. She put on a smile that she hoped looked genuine, and said. "That sounds great, Mom. I bet April would love to be included." Rory's thoughts plagued her. _One day with April and I'm already being cast aside. I'm supposed to be Mom's maid of honor. That's not a position you're supposed to share with anyone. _Rory felt she couldn't tell her mother any of this. Her mom was happy and Rory didn't want to ruin it. Besides which, she didn't want to fight with her again. The time they'd spent apart had been unbearably painful. She decided to just keep quiet and let Lorelai have her wedding day the way she wanted it. "I'm just going to go get the boxes out of the kitchen," she said, her jealous thoughts still tormenting her.


	12. Chapter 12

Luke pulled his truck up in front of Anna's house and April scrambled out and bounded up to the house, anxious to tell her mother everything. She'd checked in throughout the day like she'd promised she would, but hadn't really given her any details. Luke got out and walked around to the back of the truck to unload April's bike when Anna met April at the door.

"How was your day?" she asked her daughter.

"Great!' She replied. "I've got so much to tell you!"

"I want to hear all about it, but first I want to talk to your dad for a minute. You go on inside and I'll be in there in a little while and you can tell me what you did today."

April's face fell. "Ok," she said hoping that her parents wouldn't fight again. They were just starting to get along.

Anna walked over to the truck where Luke was lifting April's bike out of its bed. "Hi, can we talk for a minute?"

"Sure," he said putting his daughter's bike down and turning toward Anna. "What's up?"

"I want you to know that this thing we're doing here, trying to share April, I'm still a little uncomfortable with it. I've never been that good at sharing."

"Funny, you never minded sharing your bed," he said and regretted in instantly. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that. That was…what were the words you used earlier…'a low blow and beneath me'?"

"I probably deserved it. I know that I've made some mistakes in my past and I wasn't the most stable individual when we were together, but all that changed when I found out that I was pregnant. I had to figure out how to be a mom and it wasn't easy. I completely turned my life around and started putting her first. I'm not a perfect mother, I know that, but you have to understand that April is my whole world and now that she has you in her life, I keep feeling like she doesn't need me as much anymore."

"Anna, you're her mother. She'll always need you. That's not going to change just because she's hanging out with me and Lorelai and Rory."

"That's the other thing that's a little unnerving to me. I was just getting used to the idea of sharing her with you and now that she's met Lorelai I have to share her with another woman too. Don't get me wrong, Lorelai seems like a nice enough person. It's very obvious that you're in love with her, and she definitely gets the single mom life that I've been living, but the idea of her influencing April, especially considering the fact that she got pregnant as sixteen makes me worry. That's only four years older than April is now."

"So, you think Lorelai's some kind of advocate for teen pregnancy, just because she made a mistake when she was still a kid?"

"I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that that combined with the fact that she's pregnant now and that the two of you live together without being married may be setting the wrong kind of example for her."

"Are you forgetting the fact that April herself was born out of wedlock and that she knew when she did the DNA test that there were three men who could have been her father? What kind of example is that setting for her?"

"I'm just trying to think about the future. You and April are spending more and more time together. I've been thinking it won't be long until one of you is asking for weekend visits and I'm not sure I want that to happen while you and Lorelai are living together. Aside from the fact that from what I saw of the house today, it hardly seems big enough for the three of you that are living there now, let alone for April and a new baby."

"OK, first of all Lorelai and I _are _getting married and even if we weren't, it's not like we're planning on having sex in front of April. Second of all, Rory doesn't live there full time. She has her own place in New Haven that's a lot more convenient for her since she goes to school there. And finally that house has plenty of room for expansion. We would have no problem making it big enough for all of us."

"What about until then? Do you honestly think that Lorelai's daughter is going to be willing to share her room with a future step-sister that she barely knows, even if she doesn't stay there all the time?"

"Why wouldn't she? Rory's a good kid with a big heart. She's perfectly fine with me being there."

"God, you're so naïve, Luke. She may have accepted you because she knows you, but that place is her home whether she lives there full-time or not. I don't know Rory very well, but I have a feeling that an only child, no matter how old she is or how much she cares for you, is going to have a little trouble adjusting to sharing her personal space with a virtual stranger; Especially given that fact that she seems to have a fatherly place in her heart for you. Don't you think she'd be a little envious of the fact that you've suddenly got a new daughter taking her place?"

"I think you're overreacting."

"And I think you're in for an abrupt wake-up call."

"Whatever," He said in a huff. "This isn't getting us anywhere and I need to get home to Lorelai."

"I'm not trying to pick a fight with you. I really think it's great that you're trying to blend two families. I just think that you want it to happen right away and things are not that simple. It takes time for relationships to form and one day of the four of you hanging out together is not enough."

"I know that. I just want so badly for all of this to work out and you telling me that it won't isn't helping and besides that, April and I haven't even talked about weekend visits. I don't even know if that's something that she's interested in."

"I'm not saying that it won't work out, but it's going to take time, and I'm honestly surprised that April hasn't mentioned the idea of weekend visits with you since she asked you to go on this trip with her. She really seems to enjoy her time with you. She let me know that in no uncertain terms last night when she was swearing at me."

"About that, we seriously need to do something about her language. She's way too young to be talking like that."

Anna laughed, "I know. She usually only does it when she's upset about something, but it's a bad habit I've been trying to break her of."

"While we're actually talking and not yelling, there's something I want to run past you."

"Shoot," She said.

"I was thinking about getting April a cell phone and adding it to my plan so she can keep in touch with me better. Also, it would be helpful if we ever have an incident like this morning again."

"I don't know, Luke. That's kind of an expensive gift if you consider the cost of paying a monthly bill on it."

"Consider it twelve years of birthday presents I never got to give her. That's just one more thing that I missed out on with her. I've been to more of Rory's birthday parties than I have my own daughter's."

"Ok," Anna relented. "But you'd better let her pick it out. Young girls are picky about their cell phones. Do me a favor, though."

"What's that?"

"_If _April does bring up the weekend thing with you, can you try to ease her away from it for now? Give me some time to deal with everything. Once, you and Lorelai get married, we can try to work something out, but until then…" she broke off, hoping he would understand that this was hard for her.

"You got it. Listen-"He began, but Anna cut him off.

"I know. You've got a pregnant fiancé to get home to." As he started to walk away, she added, "It's funny, I never imagined you as a family man."

"Yeah, me either", he said with a smile as he walked back to his truck.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Lorelai and Rory walked outside carrying the last of the empty boxes and shared a look of dread as they saw Christopher's car pulling into the driveway. _Oh crap, _Lorelai thought as he got out of his car and made his way across the yard, glancing at the piles of boxes as he went.

"Are things that bad with Logan that you're moving back home?" He asked his daughter.

"No, in fact I'm going back to New Haven tonight. I've got classes in the morning, remember? And why do you care all of a sudden what's going on with me and Logan when you came here for him?" She couldn't believe he was here after what had happened at Luke's today.

"I didn't come here for him. I came here for you. When Logan called me, I got worried. I tried your cell and it went straight to voicemail, then I tired the house several times and got no answer."

"We turned off the ringer on the phone and the answering machine so Rory could have a little time to deal with things without Logan calling constantly," Lorelai explained. "I'm gonna go in now, so you two can talk."

"Lor…"

"Don't, Chris. Whatever you have to say, I don't want to hear it. I heard enough at the diner today. You offended Luke in his own place and made a mockery of our relationship. You need to get over your petty jealousy and accept once and for all that Luke and I are together and we're going to _stay _together. That's what all these boxes are about. Luke finished moving his stuff in today."

"He's living here now? With my kid?"

"No, he's living here with me. And you know that Rory isn't a kid anymore. She's an adult who has her own place with her own boyfriend. You should remember. You're the one who called me the day Rory moved in with Logan!"

"I'm sorry. I just don't know what to think about all this. I mean, you've never made a serious commitment to any guy, not even me, and yet you've let this guy move in, you're engaged to him and having a kid with him. Not to mention that you're playing mommy to his kid."

"You should think that I've moved on with my life and I'm happy. Chris, you know that I love you and I always will, but I love you in the way that you love an old childhood friend and I love the fact that you gave me Rory. That's nowhere near what I feel for Luke. He's the one I'm in love with and want to spend my life with. The moving in, the engagement, this baby, and getting to know April are all a part of that. If you can't respect that, than you can't be a part of my life." With that said, she turned and walked into the house, leaving the father and daughter alone together.

"What are you doing here, Dad?" Rory folded her arms across her chest and glared at him.

"I came to apologize. I went to pick up Gigi from my mom's and was halfway back to Boston when I decided to turn around and come back. I dropped your sister back off in Hartford and came here. I had to try to make things right with you. Can we at least attempt to talk?"

"I guess," Rory said uncrossing her arms. "But the front porch is probably not a good place to do it. Luke should be back from taking April home anytime now and he'll go nuclear if he sees you before I have a chance to explain to him why you're here."

"That's fair." He said. He definitely didn't want another confrontation with Luke.

Rory poked her head in the door. "Mom, is it ok if Dad comes in so we can talk? We'll stay in my room, I promise."

"It's your house, too." Lorelai replied noncommittally.

"Thanks," Rory said as she motioned for her father to come inside. Chris followed Rory in the house and glanced at Lorelai who was idly changing channels on the TV not really paying attention to what was on.

She looked up as Chris walked in and said to Rory, "You don't have to hide in your room. You can go in the kitchen if you want."

"Nah, it's probably better this way. That way when Luke gets home, you can de-stress him before he hits the roof."

"Good idea," she agreed, not wanting to imagine her fiancé's reaction when he saw Chris' car in the driveway. As Rory and her father walked into her room and closed the door, she started pacing around the room, trying to think of a way to keep Luke from overreacting to Christopher's presence in their home. She started flipping through her DVDs and plucked one off the shelf. _Perfect, _she thought opening the case and popping it into the DVD player. She then walked to the kitchen, grabbed a bag of popcorn and tossed it in the microwave when she heard Luke's key in the door. She ran to the door and pulled Luke into a passionate embrace, kissing him feverishly.

Luke enthusiastically kissed her back, and then pulled away breathlessly. "What was that for?"He asked her already knowing the answer.

"I just missed you while you were gone."

"And it was in no way a clever ploy to keep me distracted from the fact that Christopher's Volvo is parked in the driveway."

"Maybe a little, but I swear I didn't invite him here. He came to try to make amends with Rory."

"First, the diner, now here," Luke grumbled.

"Please, Hon, don't make a fuss. I told him that I'm with you one hundred percent and I think he's starting to get that."

Luke sighed, "I don't know, Lorelai. I don't like the idea that he's here. Every time I'm around that guy he makes me want to smash his face in when I think of all the pain he's cause you and Rory over the years."

"I know, Bu you know something? I didn't like it much when Anna was here this morning either, but this is something we're both going to have to deal with. You've got a kid with somebody else and so do I. I know that I'm going to have to deal with Anna being around from time to time, but you're going to have to accept the fact that Christopher may come around once in awhile too, especially when Rory's home for the summer. Now, come on, I've got popcorn in the microwave and a movie picked out for us to watch."

"All right," he said, not liking it, but he realized Lorelai was right as he reflected on his conversation with Anna. He and Lorelai still had some things to work on if their impending marriage was going to be successful. "But if you think I'm going to make nice and be friends with him after the way he's behaved, you're crazy."

"I'm not asking you to be friends with him, just to learn to tolerate him, for Rory's sake."

"I get it," he said grudgingly and changed the subject. "Just tell me this movie isn't some chick flick." They walked toward the living room together.

"That's the beauty of this movie. It's kind of a chick flick and sports movie in one."

Luke picked up the case and looked at it. "'A League of Their Own'? Isn't that the one about the girls' baseball league?"

"Yep," she said as the microwave dinged. "That's why I thought it'd be a good one for us to watch together. Now you just sit down and relax while I go get the popcorn."

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Emily and Richard sat in their living room having their regular nightly cocktails both thinking about the events of the day. Richard looked over at his wife who was absorbed in a book, then went back to his own, not wanting to disturb her reading.

"What is it, Richard?" his wife asked. "Still thinking about Luke and Lorelai?"

"How did you know?"He asked.

"You've been on the same page of that book for the last twenty minutes and you're not a slow reader. That leads me to think your thoughts on something besides Dickens. Given the events of the last two days, I can only imagine that it has something to do with them."

"You know me too well," he said with a sigh as he set his book aside giving up the pretense that he could actually concentrate on it.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"I was thinking about Luke's reaction to Christopher's presence in the diner and how the two of them nearly came to blows. I just keep wondering what would have happened if Lorelai hadn't stepped between them."

"It was not a brilliant move on Christopher's part to walk in there considering what happened the last time they were in the same room."

"That was _your _doing, if I recall."

"I know that. I was wrong to try to interfere. I just wanted more for Lorelai than for her to be stuck in some backwoods town tied to a man who seemed to be perfectly content to be nothing more than he was; a small town business owner with no education."

"I'd hardly say Luke has _no _education. He may not have a college degree, but he seems to have a lot of knowledge just from actual living."

"I'm starting to see that," Emily agreed. "When he was talking about his father's death, it made me realize how little we really know about him and how much he's gone through in his life and what's lead him to becoming the man he is today. That must have been horrible for him, leaving school to watch his father die, his mother already long gone, his sister married and moved away, and his father's life's work falling apart."

"I imagine that was an incredibly painful time for him. I can only imagine what he must have felt being forced to close down his father's store so soon after his death. I remember vividly how I felt when I lost my mother, but I had you and Rory and Lorelai to help me through it. He went through all of that alone."

"Oh my God!' Emily exclaimed as a thought struck her hearing her mother-in-law mentioned. "I'm your mother!"

"What?" Richard said in bewilderment.

"What your mother did to you with that hideous letter she wrote to you before our wedding, trying to get you back together with Linny Lott. I did the same thing to Lorelai by going to Christopher and pretty much telling him to break up her relationship, and I've been absolutely awful to Luke the way your mother used to be to me."

Richard laughed at his wife's comparison to his mother. "Well, you have been a bit of a snob when it comes to Luke."

"I've been the stereotypical evil meddling mother-in-law and they're not even married yet."

"I wouldn't call you evil, but the meddling mother-in-law part, I'd have to agree with."

"Maybe we shouldn't buy the house for them," she said. "Lorelai would probably take it as another insult to Luke and think it's just more meddling."

"After you talked me into it? I thought we agreed that it would be an excellent wedding present and a way to take some of the pressure off of them as they start their marriage."

"I know, but now I'm not so sure that Lorelai won't think it's just me being a snob again, or thinking that Luke is incapable of providing for his family."

"After our talk today, I don't think Luke would take it that way."

"What exactly _did _the two of you talk about today?"

"That is between me and Luke."

"You're seriously not going to tell me?"

"No, Emily, I'm not. The only thing that I will tell you about it is that I felt the need to give him a little fatherly advice since his father's not around to do it." He smiled a little as he recalled Luke's embarrassment at revealing the subtle changes he'd noticed in Lorelai's appearance caused by her pregnancy.

"What kind of advice and what are you smiling about?"

"That's it. Emily. That's all you get. The rest is between me and my future son-in=law."

"He's _my _future son-in-law too," she reminded her husband.

"If you feel the need to have a man to man talk with him yourself, go right ahead."

"You're _really _enjoying this, aren't you?"

"As a matter of fact, I am," he replied with a look of amusement in his eyes. "Here's an idea, if you want to get to know him better. Maybe _you_ could spend a day with him at the batting cages."

"Now, you're just teasing me. I can't believe that you agreed to it. You don't even know which end of a baseball bat is which."

"That is an exaggeration. Just because I've never played the game doesn't mean that I know nothing about the sport. Besides, it's only fair. I sort of forced him into playing golf with me last year."

"I would _love _to be a fly on that wall and see you attempting to play baseball with Luke." Emily laughed as she tried to picture her husband with a baseball bat in his hand.

"I'm a firm believer that it's never too late in life to try new things."

"The next thing you know, he'll have you in rented shoes at some local bowling alley, throwing back a few beers, while you talk about your wives and how they never understand the need for male bonding."

"I seem to remember you throwing back a few beers back in your youth, Emily."

"Oh, Please," Emily replied. "That was college. Everybody drinks beer in college. Besides that's all you fraternity boys ever seemed to serve at your parties, aside from that horrible mixture you called punch that tasted like it was stirred with your feet."

Richard laughed. "I remember that. The punch was usually just thrown together with whatever kind of liquor we had on hand at the time. We didn't really care what we put in it as long as it achieved the goal of having tipsy women falling at our feet." They laughed together for a moment, recalling how their tumultuous relationship had started, before Richard spoke up again turning the conversation back to a more serious note. "Something else I was thinking about that kept me from focusing on my book was Rory and the way she yelled at her father. I've never seen her behave that way toward Christopher before."

"I have," Emily confessed.

"You have? When was this?"

"Shortly after Christopher left to go be with that woman he impregnated. It was a Friday night when the girls were here for dinner and you were out of town. Christopher just showed up here unannounced because they hadn't been returning his phone calls. He accused Lorelai of keeping Rory from him and Rory jumped in and defended her mother, saying that it was her choice not to call him back and then she told him to go be someone else's dad."

"I guess it never occurred to me how much that whole debacle must have hurt Rory. She's always seemed like the kind of girl who can bounce back from anything, like her mother."

"The thing is, I think we've been taking it for granted that though Rory and Lorelai have a lot in common, they are still very different people who react to things in different ways. I don't think Rory's anywhere near as strong as Lorelai. Look at this whole mess with Rory dropping out of school after Mitchum told her she 'didn't have it'. Lorelai would never have given up on her dream that easily. Do you remember when your mother mentioned that she thought Lorelai was running out of money to open the inn?"

"Yes," he replied.

"Well, she was right. I didn't know it until last night when Lorelai and I were talking, but she told me when that was going on, she went to Luke for the money to finish the inn. That must have been hard for her to do, but she swallowed her pride and did it rather than sacrificing her dream. She confided in me that she wouldn't have the inn if it weren't for Luke investing his own money in it."

"I wonder why he never mentioned that when he talking about his other investments while we were playing golf last year."

"He probably didn't want to embarrass Lorelai by telling you that she'd needed help. He seems very protective of her."

"Yes, he does," Richard agreed. "And of Rory," he was thinking that his wife was right. Even though Luke had shared a lot with him today, there were still many things about him that they didn't know. He was more resolved than ever to do whatever it took to rectify that, even if that meant making a fool of himself trying to do something he was unfamiliar with, because Luke enjoyed it. He didn't want Lorelai to shut them out of her life again and keep them from knowing their new grandchild. He was determined to see that that didn't happen. He glanced at his wife, hoping that she felt the same way.


	13. Chapter 13

Rory and Christopher sat on her be both feeling a little awkward. Rory was still angry with her father not just for insulting Luke today but for all the promises he'd made her that he'd never kept. She wondered if he truly there to see her and not to try to hurt Luke again or interfere with the relationship that made her mom so happy.

"So, I see there's been some work done on the house," Chris began not quite sure how to break the ice with his sullen daughter. "It looks pretty good."

"If you think the living room looks good, you should see Mom and _Luke's_ bedroom. That's where the real work has been done to make it big enough for both of them."

Her emphasis on the fact that Lorelai was sharing her room with Luke had not been lost on Chris. "So, you don't mind him being here?"

"No, Dad. I don't. In fact all of the remodeling was his idea. He wanted this place to feel like their home."

"Couldn't he afford to buy her a house himself?"

Rory stood up and glared at her father. "You know what, Dad? This isn't going to work. You say you came here to talk to me, but if all you're going to do is run Luke down again, I don't want you here. He has been nothing but good to me and Mom over the years and her doesn't deserve that. For a long time, he was the closest thing I had to having a father around and I know that bothers you, but it's a fact. You made a conscious choice to stay away for most of my life."

"But I always kept in touch with you. I called you, I wrote you. I sent you presents."

"But you weren't here, Dad! Mom and I lived in Stars Hollow for fifteen years before you ever set foot in the place. For all you knew we could have been living on the street, whereas Luke has always been around. He's fixed things up I this house for years to keep the place from falling down around our ears. He's kept us fed even when we didn't have much money to pay him for his food. Like when I was 11 and I had the chicken pox-"

"Not the chicken pox story again! I heard it from that diner guy at your grandparents wedding thing."

"Well, maybe you need to hear it again, because it didn't sink in the first time. When I was sick then, all I wanted to eat was mashed potatoes. Mom couldn't get me to eat anything else and she's a horrible cook, so he came here every day for a week and brought me mashed potatoes, just so I'd eat. And for the record, _that diner guy_ has a name. It's Luke."

"Ok, so _Luke_ brought you mashed potatoes, big deal."

"That meant a lot to a sick kid and that's not all. He was there when I needed a male role model. He came to all my birthday parties from the time I turned ten, you've never been to one in twenty-one years. He brought me pie to cheer me up when I was struggling to catch up at Chilton, he made me a special coffee cake and blew up balloons at the diner for my sixteenth birthday, which is really something because he refuses to even decorate it for the holidays. He was there for me when I got my heart broken for the first time and the second time, in fact every time I've gotten my heart broken by a guy. He even sent his own nephew away because of me after he wrecked my car and my arm got broken, even though I told everybody it wasn't Jess' fault. He was there for me at my high school graduation and do you know, he actually cried listening to my valedictory speech? I bet you didn't even know that I was the valedictorian of my high school class. He was there for me when I started college, helping me move into my dorm. He's been there for me in fatherly ways so many times, I can't even list them all and you seem to act like you can make up for twenty-one years of neglect by just writing a check to Yale and coming around once in awhile to check out the place. I love you, Dad. I really do, but that special place a girl has in her heart for her dad, doesn't belong to you. It belongs to Luke. You're my father, but Luke's been a dad to me, in every way that really counts. I'm getting really tired of you treating him like crap because you're jealous of that."

"Did you ever think that maybe he did all that stuff for you to get your mother to notice him? From what I hear around this town, he's wanted her for years. Maybe he was just sucking up to get in her pants?"

"Of course he was, Dad," Rory said sarcastically. "'Cause God knows the only reason any guy would be nice to me is to get to my mother! That sure seems to be your mentality. You never just come around to be with your kid. You have to have both Lorelais or neither of us. Why can't _I _ever be the Lorelai you wanna hang with? It's got to be a package deal with you. "

"Isn't that the way it's supposed to be? When you have a kid with someone, you're supposed to become a family."

"You don't know how many years I wanted that to happen, Dad, but I gave up on that dream when you told us that Sherry was pregnant. I knew then that I'd never have that traditional family life and the thing is, I don't want that anymore. As much as I love you, you're not good for Mom. She's kind of scattered and crazed. She needs someone who can keep her grounded and Luke does that. Luke, he's kind of withdrawn and afraid to open up to people, but he's also very giving. He'd give someone the shirt off his back if he thought they needed it more than he did. Mom draws him out of his shell and gets him to open up more. The amazing thing is they do this without trying to change each other. They give each other what they each need. I would love to have a relationship like theirs."

"I'm sorry, Rory. It's just that your mom was my first real friend, my first kiss, my first…" he hesitated. "…everything. It's hard to let go of that."

"You're gonna have to. Mom's going to marry Luke just two months from now."

"I know," he admitted. "I guess you know with whatever this thing is that's going on between you and Logan how hard it is to let go of your first lover."

Rory laughed. "You think Logan was my first?"

"You mean he wasn't?" Christopher was shocked. He's been surprised enough a few months ago when he'd learned that his daughter was living with her boyfriend, but finding out that he wasn't the first was even worse. How did he know so little about his own daughter? "How many guys have you been with?" He asked her, not sure he wanted the answer.

"Just one other guy, Dean. You met him the first time you came here when I was sixteen."

"You lost your virginity when you were sixteen? Didn't you learn anything from mine and your mother's past?"

"No, Dad. I wasn't sixteen when I lost my virginity. I was nineteen, but it was to the guy I was dating when I was sixteen."

Chris sighed. "I guess I'm starting to understand how little I know about your life. How little you share with me. I suppose that Luke knows all about this stuff. That you shared it with him."

"I share stuff with Luke because he takes the time to ask about my life. You don't."

"Yes, I do!"

"No, Dad. You ask about _Mom's _life," she said bitterly. "You don't care enough to ask what's going on in _my _life so I don't share it with you."

"Ok, so tell me stuff. Like for starters, what's going on with your relationship with Logan?"

"That is _so _not a conversation I have time for tonight. I have to drive back to school at some point so I can make it to class on time in the morning."

"Oh," Chris said clearly disappointed.

"If you really want to know, I'll tell you, but not tonight. How about we get together later this week in New Haven and we can really talk, but for now I have to pack up my stuff so I can go back to my place."

"OK. I'd like that." He rose and opened the door, stepped out of Rory's room and glanced into the living room. Luke and Lorelai were sitting on the couch with their legs stretched out, their backs to him. Luke was leaning his back against the arm of the couch while Lorelai was leaning her back against his chest with his arms around her. Both had their heads turned toward the TV, with a half-eaten bowl of popcorn on the table. Chris heard chants of "you're gonna lose" coming from the TV.

"God, somebody needs to smack that rotten kid," Luke commented.

"Wait for it, Honey," Lorelai replied. She'd seen the movie before and knew what was about to happen.

"Ouch," Luke said as he watched the kid get hit in the head with a baseball glove. "I think I'd have hit him with the bat though."

Lorelai giggled and turned her head to face Luke. "Are you sure you're ready to be a dad again?"

"Yes," He said as he lightly stroked her stomach. "We'll just have to make sure that our kid knows better than to behave like that," he smiled as he planted a kiss on Lorelai's lips. She responded by turning a little more and sliding an arm behind his neck to deepen the kiss. Chris saw where this was going and cleared his throat loudly to make his presence known. They broke the kiss and both turned toward him.

"I'm sorry to intrude on you guys," He said awkwardly, not wanting to start another screaming match with Luke."I'll be going now. I'm just passing through to get to the front door."

Luke tightened his arms around Lorelai, holding back all the things he wanted to say to Christopher and simply said, "Have a good night, Christopher."

Christopher breathed a sigh of relief. "Yeah, you too," he replied and headed out the front door.

Lorelai turned back and looked at Luke in surprise. _"_'Have a good night, Christopher?' That's it?" She questioned.

"What? You said you wanted me to try to tolerate the guy. Would you prefer it if I'd said 'Go to hell, Christopher?' Because that's what I really wanted to say."

"No, I'm just surprised by your restraint and admiring it. I'm proud of you. I know you probably wanted to jump out of your seat and punch his lights out."

"Yeah, well, I'm already comfortable, plus you're kinda sitting on me so jumping out of my seat and punching his lights out really wasn't an option. Besides, Rory would probably take it badly."

"Rory would take what badly?" Rory asked emerging from her room with the bag she'd brought home for the weekend slung over her shoulder.

"If Luke punched your dad's lights out," her mother replied.

"Nah, after the way he acted today, he kinda deserved it. So, Luke if you feel the urge to punch his lights out, by all means, punch his lights out. I'm surprised you haven't done it long before now."

"No need," Luke said. "The urge has passed. But thanks. You heading back to school?"

"Yep, I've got classes in the morning. I need to get home. I'm just not quite sure what's gonna happened when I get there."

"Well, if you need someone to punch Logan's lights out for you, give me a call. You've got my cell number."

"Thanks, Luke, but I just may do it myself. I'm tougher than I look," she said making a fist and miming punching someone.

Luke laughed at this as Lorelai stood up to hug her daughter. "You be careful driving back and make sure you call me and let me know what happens with Logan," She said.

"I will," she promised. She released her mother and bent down to hug Luke too. "Thank you, Luke, for everything."

"You're welcome, Kid," He replied knowing that she wasn't just talking about this weekend. After she left he turned to Lorelai and said "I should get up to bed. I've got the dairy guy coming at five in the morning and it's already past my bedtime."

"I'll come up with you," she said as she turned the TV off.

"You don't have to. I know it's still early for you. If you want to stay up and finish the movie, that's cool."

"We'll finish it together tomorrow. I like going to bed with you. Boy, did _that_ sound dirty, but you know what I mean."

"Yeah," He said.

"Besides, I already know how the movie ends," She said as they made their way up the stairs together."

"They win, don't they?"

"You're gonna have to watch the rest with me tomorrow night to find out."

"It's a date," he said as he slid his arm around her waist.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The next morning, Lorelai had barely walked in the front door of the inn when she was accosted by Michel

"You must do something about that woman! She is driving me crazy!"He said clearly frustrated.

"Do something about who, Michel?"

"Sookie!" he said in an exasperated tone as if Lorelai should have known who he was talking about.

"What's going on?"

"Well, since I skipped breakfast and came in early today, I asked her if she could make me one of her egg-white omelets and she practically ripped my head off. She's been banging around in there all morning, slamming pots, throwing things, and she scared two of the servers. They are now hiding in the barn with the horses. She's in a foul mood and she won't talk to anyone except to yell at them."

"Ok, Michel, calm down. I'll talk to her," she said as she headed toward the kitchen. When she walked in the door, she saw Sookie at the cutting board, brutally chopping vegetables not caring like she usually did that they were in uneven pieces. She was cutting into them so hard that some of the pieces were flying onto the floor. "Sookie, what's going on?"

Sookie looked up at her and snapped, "Don't talk to me!" and dropped her head back to what she was doing.

"I have to talk to you. You're my business partner."

"Yep, apparently that's all I am to you, your partner, Oh, and the caterer for your wedding. Your partner and your caterer, _that's_ all I am to you." She said all this without looking up. "It's funny though, all this time, I thought I was your friend, but I guess not."

"Sookie, you _are _my friend," she said lightly placing her hand on her friend's shoulder. "What's this all about?"

Sookie turned to her the knife in her hand dangerously close to Lorelai's throat. "Don't act like you don't know!"

"Ok, Sookie, let's start by putting down the very sharp knife," Lorelai said taking it from her hand and setting it aside. "And I really don't know what you're talking about."

"You lied to me, Lorelai! I asked you point blank the other day if you were pregnant and you looked me straight in the eye and lied to me! I had to hear the truth from East Side Tilly this morning. Do you have any idea how that feels? I heard the biggest news in my best friend's life from someone else because she lied to me!" Sookie turned, bent down and started picking up the vegetables that were strewn across the kitchen floor.

"I'm sorry," She said. Getting no response, she tried again. "I'm really sorry." She still got no response. Sookie continued to ignore her, walked to the trash can, discarded the vegetables she'd picked up and reached around Lorelai for the knife she'd taken from her, not looking at her friend. "Sookie, I'm trying to apologize! Will you at least look at me and give me a chance to explain?"

Sookie turned back to Lorelai. "Ok, fine explain! Explain to me why everyone in town knew that my supposed best friend is having another baby before I did! Explain to me why I feel like my supposed best friend doesn't trust me enough to chare something like this with me. And while you're at it explain to me why I'm allowed to cater your wedding, but I'm not allowed to be a part of this! I always thought if you and Luke ever had kids, I'd be the first to know."

"I wanted to tell you."

"Yeah, Right."

"I did! But you have to understand, I'd only found out that day myself and I hadn't told Luke yet. I wanted him to be the first to know, so when you hit me with it like that I panicked! I'm really sorry I lied to you, but I had to tell Luke first."

"But you knew I was pregnant with both my kids before Jackson did."

"I know, but this is different."

"How? Best friends are supposed to share everything."

"I know, but it's different because of what Anna did to him. She kept him from knowing he had a kid for twelve years. Knowing that, I couldn't take the chance that he would hear the news that he was going to be a dad again from someone else."

"You think I'm some big blabber mouth like Babette or Miss Patty or Mrs. Cassini?"

"Well, you have been known to give away a secret or two in the past. Usually without meaning to, but it's happened. I couldn't take the risk. I _had _to tell Luke first. Then after I told the Luke the rest of the weekend got so crazy with April running away and Christopher showing up and my parents here…"

"Wait, wait, wait, and slow down. I have no clue what you're talking about. Start from the beginning and tell me everything."


	14. Chapter 14

That afternoon Luke walked out of Doose's after a successful meeting with Taylor, coveted permits in hand. He'd arranged the meeting the day before when he'd gone to get the boxes so that he could make sure that at least he had this one thing out of the way. Two months was a short time to try to get a weeding together and if it was going to be done in the town square, that had to be done first since all the other plans revolved around the location of the wedding. He was so triumphant over his ability to get Taylor to cooperate that he was paying any attention and nearly slammed right into his future mother-in-law who was on her way to meet Lorelai at the diner.

"Oh, jeez, Emily," he said. "I'm sorry. I didn't see you,"

"That's quite all right, Luke," She replied. "What's all that?" She asked indicating the papers in his hand.

"Oh, these are the permits we need for the wedding. I just got them from Taylor."

"What kind of permits could you possibly need for your wedding?"

"Well, you have to have permits to have an event in the town square and a separate one if you're going to serve alcohol and another one for-"

"You're getting married in the square?" Emily cut him off.

Before he could answer, he was caught off guard by his little sister attacking him. She launched herself at him, hugging him tightly. "Oh my God, Oh my God, oh my God!" she squealed in excitement.

Emily looked at her in disdain, wondering who this crazed woman was who was clinging to her daughter's fiancé.

Liz released her brother as quickly as she grabbed him. "Lucas Danes! I am so mad at you!" She said, punching him on the arm.

"You could've fooled me the way you lunged at me just now," He replied.

"How could you not tell me that you got Lorelai pregnant? Don't you think that's something that I oughtta know? I had to hear the news from Miss Patty."

"I'm sorry. I meant to, things just got a little crazy."

"Ah, forget about it. I forgive you. I'm too excited to really be mad anyway. So how's Lorelai doing? Is she feeling ok? Having any freaky cravings? Oh, have you told Rory yet? And April? Does April know? Did you call Jess? What about Anna? Is she gonna freak out or what? Oh my God!" she said as she hugged him again, and then let him go just as quickly. "This is wonderful news! You're gonna be a daddy again. You and Lorelai are starting a family of your own. This is sooo great! I can't believe it! I'm gonna be an aunt!" she finally took a breath and noticed Emily for the first time. "Who's this?"

"Liz, this is Lorelai's mother, Emily Gilmore, Emily, my sister, Liz."

"Oh my God!' Liz exclaimed as she pulled Emily into a tight hug. Emily looked a little confused by this.

"Liz, you might want to let go of my future mother-in-law. She doesn't even know you." Luke said.

"Right," she agreed. "I'm sorry," she said to Emily. "I'm just so excited to meet you! And I'm excited about the wedding." She turned to her brother." I was talking to Taylor this morning and he said you guys were getting married in the square in our home town! That's so romantic! And you and Lorelai are having a baby!" She turned to Emily again and said, "I'm sorry if I'm gushing. I'm not usually this excitable." Luke snorted in response. "I'm not! I just can't wait to see my big brother finally getting married!"

"I _was _married once before, Liz."

"Yeah, but Nicole was never right for you. She was way too stuck up to be with a down to earth guy like you."

"Lizzie, you never even met her!"

"No, but I heard enough stories about her." She focused her attention back on Emily. "Speaking of stories, there are some things I could tell you about this big lug that you wouldn't believe."

"Why don't you save the embarrassing childhood stories for another time, huh?"

"Yeah, Ok, I gotta tell you one thing though, "Liz said to Emily. "Whenever I was in trouble or needed help of any kind, this guy right here was always my hero!" She hugged him tight again and said, "I love you, Bro."

"Yeah, I love you too, Sis." He said as she released him again and started to skip off. "Where are you going?"

"I've got to go tell TJ the big news!" She took off across the square leaving her brother shaking his head.

Luke turned to Emily and said, "Please don't judge me by my family. My sister is a little…" he was at a loss for a word to describe Liz.

"Exuberant?" Emily suggested, still reeling from being hugged by a complete stranger.

"That'd be a good word to describe her."

"She's quite a character," Emily said with a laugh. She found it difficult to imagine that these two very different people came from the same parents. Liz was excitable, energetic and high-spirited and Luke was…well _not_. "She certainly seems have a high regard for you. She called you her hero." Emily commented as they resumed their walk to Luke's.

"I've helped her out of a couple of jams over the years, that's all."

"I hardly think that's all there is to it. I think she has a genuine affection for you just because you're her brother."

They walked into the diner and saw Lorelai sitting at one of the tables waiting for her mother.

"You're late, Mom," she said. She couldn't help rubbing Emily's nose in it a little considering she would have considered tardiness one of the seven deadly sins if it had been up to her.

"I'm sorry, Lorelai. We were just accosted by Luke's very lively sister," she explained as she settled herself into the chair across from Lorelai's.

"She got you too, huh? She just left here a little while ago after hugging me about twelve times and asking me a zillion questions that she didn't give me a chance to answer."

"That's my sister for you," Luke muttered. "Are you sure this is the family you want to marry into?"

"I'm sure," she said as she reached for his hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. "Look at it this way; I get Liz and TJ while you get Emily and Richard Gilmore. I'm not sure that's a fair trade for you."

"Hey!" Emily said. "Do you want my help the guest list or not?"

"I'm just kidding, Mom. Jeez, lighten up."

"Luke," Lane said as she walked up to him. "Now that you're back, can I take my lunch break?"

Luke glanced over and saw Zach In his usual spot by the window. "Go," He said. "Start making your wedding plans. I got it covered."

"Thanks, Luke. You're the best boss ever!" She bounced over to see her fiancé while Luke walked to the counter to fetch an order pad and walked back to the table.

Emily watched all of this and commented, "There is certainly no shortage of excitable people in this town."

"Sure, she's excited, Mom," Lorelai answered. "She just got engaged."

"That's not all," Luke said. "Apparently while we were going through all of our drama this weekend, Zach went to Mrs. Kim and officially asked for Lane's hand. Lane told me all about it when she came into to work today."

"Awww, that's so sweet."

"Yeah, and he got the Mrs. Kim seal of approval. She even gave him her mother's engagement ring to give to Lane."

"Wow," Lorelai sat thoughtfully for a moment. "Hey, how come you never did that?"

"What? Ask your parents for your hand? I'm sure _that _would've gone over well when you and your parents weren't even speaking to each other when we got engaged."

"I guess it would've been kind of pointless to ask for my hand considering the fact that you've already _had _everything else."

"Jeez, Lorelai," he said blushing furiously. "Not in front of your mother, ok?"

Emily laughed at his embarrassment and said, "It's all right, Luke. I'm used to my daughter's inappropriate sense of humor. Besides it's not as if I don't know that the two of you have been intimate. You _are _living together and she didn't get pregnant by herself, did she?"

Luke shifted uncomfortably and changed the subject, "So, what can I get you two to eat?"

Lorelai started in immediately, "Bacon-cheddar burger, rare, chili-cheese fries and a double chocolate shake."

"You got it, except for the rare part," he said as he wrote down her order.

"Luke, I always eat my burgers rare."

"Not anymore you don't. Rare meat's not good for the baby."

"How would you even know something like that?"

"What? I know stuff about food safety. I'm required by the board of health to be ServSafe certified, you know. I have to take a class every five years to get re-certified and in that class they try to scare you by telling you all kinds of horror stories about the dangers of undercooked meat."

"Luke's absolutely right, Lorelai," Emily chimed in. "Rare meat is not healthy for your unborn child."

"Is it cold in here? My mother and my fiancé are actually agreeing on something," Lorelai said. "I think hell just froze over."

"They're just getting it ready for when you arrive, "Luke quipped. "They must know how much you like the cold and the snow."

"As cranky as you are, you're gonna have a spot reserved right next to me," she retorted.

"Well, at least we'll be together." He turned to Emily."What can I get for you, Emily?"

"I think I'll have the same as Lorelai."

"You're kidding," he said in surprise. He knew from his experiences with Friday night dinners at the Gilmore house that Emily's eating habits were very different from her daughter's. He figured she would take a while to peruse the menu and ask him a ton of questions about how the food was prepared like she had the first time she'd eaten there.

"No, I'm not. Bring me the same thing."

"Ok," He replied with skepticism in his voice wondering if this would turn out to be one of her ways to start criticizing him again after she'd sampled his food. He left the table and turned toward the kitchen to give their order to Caesar and began waiting on other patrons. Emily watched as he moved with efficiency through the diner, taking orders, delivering food and refilling coffee cups. She recalled hearing the pride in her daughter's voice the other night when she'd been talking about her future husband's business. He returned to their table with two coffee pots in hand, refilling Lorelai's cup with decaf. "Would you like some coffee while you're waiting for your food, Emily?"

"Yes, Luke. That would be lovely. Thank you." Luke proceeded to pour Emily a cup of coffee while Lorelai looked at him with a scowl.

"How come my mother gets the real stuff, while I'm stuck with stinky decaf?" she whined.

"Because your mother is not the one who's carrying my child," he stated and walked back toward the kitchen. She made a face when his back was turned.

"He's just trying to look out for the welfare of your baby," Emily pointed out.

"I know, and I love that he's so protective, but it's also annoying. You know, he was really sweet last night. I woke up about one AM with this kid making me sick, and even though he had to get up really early to meet his dairy guy here, he got up with me and held my hair away from my face and rubbed by back while I was puking my guts up. Then he made me a cup of peppermint tea and brought me some crackers to help settle my stomach."

"That's good. He should be there to support you through this pregnancy. So many men make the mistake of thinking that their role ends at conception. I'm glad that he's not like that."

"I never imagined he would be."

"Lorelai, you know that isn't true. You were having doubts just two days ago about whether he was ready to be a father again."

"I didn't doubt that he'd be there for me. I was just scared that with everything else that's been going on, this might be too overwhelming for him to handle."

Luke returned with their food, set it in front of them, and then returned to work. Emily looked her plate, not sure where to begin. This was not her usual choice in meals, but she felt that if she wanted to have a better relationship with Lorelai that included at least trying some of the things that she liked. She looked at Lorelai who was already stabbing her chili and cheese covered fries with a fork and did the same. She was surprised as she tasted it. The concoction looked vile to her, but actually tasted pretty good.

"This is not bad," she commented.

"That's high praise from you, Mom, considering your loathing of diners _and _diner owners," Lorelai said with a meaningful glance toward where Luke stood behind the cash register, making change for a customer.

"I don't _loathe _Luke, Lorelai. Is that what you think?"

"Well, you've made it very plain that you don't think he's good enough for me."

"Let me ask you something, Lorelai. Does he make you happy?"

"Yes, he does. He makes me very happy."

"Then that's good enough for me."

Lorelai smiled a little as they continued their meal in silence. She wondered where this new attitude of her mother's was coming from. What it because she was afraid if she didn't start being nicer to Luke that she wouldn't be allowed around the baby or was she finally beginning to understand that she and Luke were going to stay together no matter what she thought?

"I have to admit, though that I don't really _know _Luke. That's _my _fault," she added before her daughter could interrupt her as she sensed she was about to do. "I've never taken the time to ask him anything about his life other than the parts I didn't approve of, like his divorce for example."

"I don't get that, Mom. You tried to push Christopher on me and he's been divorced too."

"I was wrong. I thought I was doing what was best for you. I saw you looking at wedding dresses when you were helping me pick mine and I heard your answer to Miss Celine when she asked if you were married. You didn't say no. You said 'not yet' as if you were thinking about it. I knew then that you and Luke were getting serious and it scared me. I didn't think that he was the kind of man who would make you happy in the long run, but I was mistaken. I was trying to see that you didn't get hurt again. It wasn't until Rory yelled at me at dinner that I realized how much you were hurting over losing Luke and how much you love him. That's why I came to see him here to tell him to try again with you. That was an incredibly difficult thing for me to do; to swallow my pride and admit to him that I was wrong, knowing that I was the one who'd hurt you both. You know that I very rarely apologize for anything."

Lorelai smiled, "That's the truth. You never believe you're wrong about anything."

"Well, I was wrong about this."

"And you're not just saying that because I'm pregnant and you want to see me marry the father of my kid?"

"No, why would you think that?"

"Gee, I don't know, Mom. Maybe all the times the past twenty-plus years you've reminded me that you wanted me to marry Christopher." She imitated her mother, saying,"Lorelai, when you get pregnant, you get married."

"Did I really sound that shrewish?"

"You should've changed your name to Kate," Lorelai replied sardonically.

Emily laughed. "I should've realized a long time ago that Christopher was never right for you. You should be with a man who's a little more mature."

"Like say, Luke, the man I'm about to marry?"

"Yes. So let's work on getting you married," Emily said as she reached for her bag.

Luke continued to work around the diner after Lane came back from her lunch break, even though it was after one and most of the lunch crowd had thinned out. He found himself cleaning the same tables over and over again just to occupy his time. He didn't want to intrude on Lorelai and Emily's time together especially since Lorelai had asked for her mother's help, something she didn't do very often. He'd only walked back to their table twice since delivering their food to see if they needed refills and both times he'd heard them talking pleasantly and even laughing a little. He hoped this was a sign of things to come. He knew that while they didn't always see eye to eye, his fiancée genuinely loved her mother and wanted to have at least a semi-decent relationship with her. He was lost in thought, when Lorelai approached him.

"Hey, Hon, "she said. "I'm gonna get out of here. I need to get back to the inn."

"Are you guys done already? I haven't even given you my list yet, though I think it's kind of pointless inviting any of my extended family since they didn't even come to Louie's funeral. I doubt any of them will show up to our wedding either." He was thinking about the list he'd been asked by Lorelai to make earlier in the day after setting up this lunch date with her mother. He'd sat down and done it after the breakfast rush had ended just before his meeting with Taylor.

"They may not show up, but they might feel guilty enough about it to send us fabulous wedding presents."

Luke laughed, shaking his head. "Like we need more stuff. We've got more crap than we know what to do with now."

"A person can never have too much stuff," she contradicted him. "To answer your question though, Mom's going to finish up from here. She's going to take the final guest list over to the printer's and she even volunteered to keep in touch with them to keep track of the RSVP list so she can do the seating charts for us."

"I can't believe that you're letting her have that much control."

"Like I said last night, she's good at it. Besides it's just one thing and we _are _going to need some help if we're going to get this wedding back to where we want it. There's still a lot to do. Anyway, I really do need to go. I'll see you later."

"Ok, I'll try to be home early so we can have dinner together."

"Sounds good." She gave him a sweet lingering kiss before heading out the door.

Emily approached him after her daughter had left and said, "Luke I'm going to need your guest list in order to get it to the printer in time to get invitations mailed out."

"Right, it's upstairs. I'll just go get it." He said and headed behind the curtain that led to his former home. While he was gone, Emily started to really look at the diner for the first time. She'd been in there many times but had never really noticed the details of the place. She saw a plaque on the wall with a photo of several young girls she assumed to be a sports team of some type, thanking Luke for being their sponsor. Next to this, she saw a framed photograph of him and Lorelai wearing the same jerseys as the girls. Above that was the ServSafe certificate he'd mentioned earlier, certifying that Lucas Danes had completed and satisfactorily passed the course. Just walking through the diner, she was learning more about her future son-in-law. Luke returned and handed her the list. "Here you go," he said.

"Thank you, Luke. I'll just add this to mine and the one Lorelai gave me of the Stars Hollow residents she wanted to invite and get them over to the printer. The sooner the invitations get sent the better."

"Good, "Luke said. "Thanks for doing this."

"You're quite welcome, Luke." She turned to leave, hesitated and turned back around. She started to ask him about the pictures on the wall, but thought better of it and left the diner, leaving Luke scratching his head about what she was doing.


	15. Chapter 15

AN: just wanted to add a quick note regarding the last chapter. I realized after posting it that some of you who have been faithfully reading may not know what the hell ServSafe is if you're never worked in a restaurant. I spent five years as a restaurant manager and am very familiar with it and just took for granted that others might me to. Basically it's a nationally recognized food safety course that educates restaurant employees on everything from food-borne illness to correct hand-washing procedures. Many states, including Connecticut require that at least one employee in a supervisory position be certified in this course. The statement Luke made about the instructor telling horror stories comes from my own personal experience with the class. We had this crazed instructor, a former health inspector who told us in graphic detail about many of the cases of food-poisoning she'd seen over the years. I could just imagine Luke sitting in that classroom getting more creeped out with every disgusting story. Just wanted to clarify that a little.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Rory walked into the apartment after finishing her afternoon classes when she was confronted by Logan.

"Where the hell have you been?" he demanded.

"Oh, I went to Stars Hollow to visit my mom for a couple days," she told him which was the truth, but not the whole truth. She'd also spent the previous night at Paris' place. She'd started to go back to the apartment she shared with Logan, but decided she wasn't quite ready to see him.

"You went to Stars Hollow?"

"Yep."

"Well, you could have told me, Ace! Left a note, called, something?"

"Yeah, I know, I should have."

"I mean, I wake up and you're gone!"

"I didn't mean to freak you out," she said more light-heartedly than she felt.

"I kept calling your cell. I must have called a hundred times."

"Oh yeah, well, my cell died and my charger was here, of course," she lied. She'd purposely turned her cell off in order to not have to talk to him. "I have to buy an extra one. You keep telling me that."

"I called your mom's house and your dad's. Finally I checked in with the paper and they told me you've been emailing stuff, so at least I knew you were alive!"

"I'm so sorry. It just became this whole thing, my grandparents stopped by unexpectedly, which took forever. Then my future step-sister ran away and my mom told me she's pregnant. It's a long story. But I promise, it'll never happen again.

"Your mom's pregnant?"

"Yeah," she said with a smile, knowing that she'd get to be a big sister to this kid from the start, unlike her relationship with Gigi. "You'll never believe where it happened."

"What? Your mom getting pregnant? I don't really think that's any of my business."

"It kind of is, though, considering it happened while the four of us were at your parents' house in Martha's Vineyard." Her mother had told her this while they'd been cleaning up the house last night before her dad showed up.

"No way! My dad would sure _love _that one."

Rory laughed, imagining what Mitchum's reaction would be if he knew that her mom and future step-father had been having sex in his house and that it had resulted in her getting pregnant. "Speaking of dads, why _did _you call my father? You know I don't have the greatest relationship with him."

"Well, I thought thing were getting better between you two. I mean, he did come here to visit and he didn't throttle me for living in sin with his daughter. Besides, I thought we kind of bonded when he was here."

Rory remembered vividly. They'd been laughing and joking about how many prep schools they'd each been thrown out of. She remembered thinking how much alike they were and how she'd learned in psych class that women tended to be attracted to guys who were like their fathers. Logan was very much like her father, reckless and immature. _Why couldn't I be attracted to a guy like Luke? He's been more like a dad to me;_ she thought when it hit her. She _had _once been attracted to a guy like Luke, Jess. Jess may not on the surface have seemed like he was anything like his uncle, but she remembered the wake for Luke's uncle that he'd been responsible for, even though he'd shrugged it off as if it were no big deal, the same way Luke did when he did something nice for someone, but was embarrassed when someone tried to give him credit for it. She smiled a little thinking about Jess and their conversation that had gotten her thinking about the lack of direction in her life and had made her see that the life she was living wasn't really _her. _Her smile faded though when she thought about how that night had also led her to where she is now. She recalled the horrible drunken argument she'd had with Logan over Jess that had led to their separation, which in turn had led to Logan sleeping with Honor's bridesmaids and now left her feeling she could never trust Logan again.

"Look," she said, "Just do me a favor. If you ever need to get in touch with me again, don't call my dad, ok? He doesn't always think rationally in situations like this. He showed up at Luke's and he and Luke got into a big screaming match right there in the middle of the diner. It was ugly."

"I'm sorry. I just didn't know what to. I panicked."

"Well, you won't have to worry about anything like this happening again."

"Good. So you won't be taking off again without letting me know where you are."

"That's not what I meant." _Just say it, _she told herself. "You won't have to worry about it again, because I won't be here. I'm leaving."

"You're leaving as in you're moving out or you're leaving as in you're leaving me?"

" Both. I thought I could deal with the whole bridesmaid thing, but I can't. You broke my heart, Logan and I don't think I can ever trust you again. I talked to Paris last night and she said I can have my old room back so I'll be moving in with her and Doyle. I just came here to get the rest of my stuff."

"Ace, I thought we talked about this. I really thought we were broken up at the time. You said you believed me."

"I _do _believe you, but it doesn't erase the hurt."

"I already apologized for that. What else can I do?"

"There's nothing you can do! Apologies don't help! The damage is done! I can't be with a guy who's going to jump in bed with someone else just because we have a fight! It doesn't matter to me that you thought we were broken up because I didn't! I told you that I loved you and I meant it, but I can't ever go through this again." She walked past him, yanked open her dresser and started packing.

"Rory…" Logan said in a pleading voice.

Rory turned around. "Don't, Logan! It's over! There's nothing you can do or say that's going to change that." She turned and resumed her packing while Logan stomped out the door behind her, rattling the door frame in the process. She sank down on the bed and let the tears she'd been holding back fall. She reached into her purse, flipped open her cell and pushed her most commonly used speed dial. "Mom? I really need to talk."

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

After she'd dropped the guest lists off at the printer and badgered the employees there into keeping in constant contact with her, Emily Gilmore let herself be led through yet another house by yet another real estate agent. She closely examined every detail of every room trying to imagine her daughter and future son-in-law here and asked herself dozens of questions. If they lived here, would it have that same homey atmosphere that their current home did? Would they be comfortable living here? Would their child be safe growing up here? Would they have more children after this one, requiring more room? She recalled the house they'd looked at yesterday, wondering what Luke had pictured when he'd dreamed of buying that house for his family. While it was a lovely house, she really couldn't see the two of them making their home there. It's not the kind of house that she'd guess Luke would really feel comfortable in. She remembered that first dinner he'd attended in her home and how he'd commented on the house and agreed with her that 'they don't make them like this anymore.' 'The art of craftsmanship is dead," he'd said. She wondered if he'd wanted it because it was solidly built and not likely to fall apart if a strong wind blew through town or if it was simply a convenient choice given its proximity to the diner or if he wanted to give Lorelai a bigger house because he knew she'd grown up in a big house.

So many thoughts were running through Emily's head. When she'd been preparing to leave the diner, there were so many questions that she'd wanted to ask him, but she thought it best not to. She thought Luke would just think she was just digging at him again like she'd done in the past. Her mind again drifted back to that first dinner with him and how she'd run down diners, making broad generalizations about how they were unsanitary. She'd practically accused him of serving road kill in his place. She knew of course that that wasn't true. His restaurant was far from unsanitary. She watched him work today and noticed how was constantly cleaning. She'd also noticed that between tasks, he was consistently washing his hands. When he went from wiping down tables to carrying plates laden with food, he washed his hands. When he went from taking money to cleaning he washed his hands. She figured out that that must be why his hands always looked so rough, he was constantly washing them to avoid spreading bacteria. She wondered if that was something he'd learned in the ServSafe class he'd taken. He'd said he had to be recertified every five years and since he was in his sixteenth year of running his business, she figured he'd taken the class at least four times by now. She thought about Lorelai's statement about small-town restaurants going out of business all the time and realized that Luke was doing whatever he had to do to protect his livelihood.

She wished Richard had been able to come with her, but she knew he had to work, so she'd kept their appointment by herself. She felt he knew Luke a little better than he did and would be able to give her some input on which house he would feel more comfortable in. She followed the realtor into the kitchen, not paying a bit of attention to what the woman was saying as she took in all the details of the room. She ran her hand across the Formica countertop next to the stove and tried to picture Luke here cooking for his family. She stifled a laugh at the thought that contrary to tradition, Luke would be the cook in their family, not Lorelai. She turned and looked at the island in the middle of the room and imagined Lorelai, Rory and April here cracking jokes with Luke as he prepared to feed them. She peered into the empty corner of the room designed to be a breakfast nook and pictured Lorelai's kitchen table fitting there perfectly with April and Rory seated at it doing schoolwork, their books spread out across it. She was surprised by how easy it was to imagine April being a part of every scenario. She'd just met the girl, but she already saw how easily she fit in with Lorelai and Rory. She knew there was still some tension there as they were all still getting to know one another, but she also knew that with time all of that would work out because Luke and Lorelai were really making an effort to blend their two families. She finally spoke to the woman who'd been leading her through the house.

"I'd like to make another appointment to see this house when my husband will be available to look at it with me."

"Ok," the woman replied. "We can set that up. Just let me know when."

"I'll have to talk to Mr. Gilmore and get back to you."

"You have my card. You can call me anytime."

"Thank you, "Emily said as she left the house and walked toward her car. She turned back and took a look at the house as a whole and sighed. _This could be the one._ She thought. She could see Luke and Lorelai living here more than she could the other houses she'd looked at, including the Twickham house. She remembered the light banter between the two of them earlier in the day and the lingering goodbye kiss they'd shared. She was glad they'd talked things out and that Lorelai seemed so much happier than she had two days ago. She hoped with all her heart that that happiness would continue throughout her marriage to Luke. Maybe this house could be a part of that. She tore her gaze away from it and then got into her car and began the drive back to Hartford.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

That evening, true to his word, Luke had come home early and almost had dinner ready when Lorelai walked in the door. Paul Anka hurried up to her and she bent down and petted him affectionately for a moment before walking into the kitchen to greet her man. She saw him standing at the stove stirring something in a saucepan and just smiled.

"God, that is so sexy," she said.

"What is?"

"You standing there in my kitchen cooking. Very sexy."

"Yeah, I'm a regular Brad Pitt," Luke deadpanned as he greeted her with a kiss. "And it's _our _kitchen, remember?"

"I remember." She loved that Luke was now referring to things as 'theirs' not 'his and hers.' She thought back to this afternoon when she'd make the crack about wedding presents and he'd said 'we' referring to how much stuff they had between them. She loved that this house was really starting to feel like it belonged to both of them. It was fitting that Luke had move in here. He'd been around so much throughout the years that they'd known each other and fixed so many things that it should be his home too. "Something smells crazy good in here."

"Fettuccine Alfredo with grilled chicken," he replied.

"You really are the perfect man," She said with a smile as she wrapped her arms around his waist from behind and kissed his neck.

Luke smiled. He loved having her arms around him, but he did need to concentrate on what he was doing to make sure the Alfredo sauce didn't stick to the pan. He patted her hand with his free one and said,"Why don't you set the table while I finish this up?"

"Ok," she said as she released him and started to gather dishes and utensils for their dinner. "Hey, I've got something kind of serious to tell you," she said.

"You're finally leaving me for Kelsey Grammar?" he joked, remembering their previous 'perfect man' conversation the night a distraught TJ had interrupted the romantic evening he'd had planned.

"No, though if he asked, I'm sorry, Babe, but I think I'd have to dump you," she jested back.

"Oh, well, I guess I'd live. I've been dumped before." He chuckled lightly glad that he and Lorelai were back to being themselves. He hadn't realized how much he'd missed his best friend until it was brutally pointed out to him by his nephew that he was in danger of losing her.

"Speaking of dumpings, what I have to tell is you actually _is _serious."

He took the Alfredo sauce off the burner, shut it off and turned to face his fiancée. "I'm listening," he said in all seriousness.

"Rory broke up with Logan today. She called me in tears and told me the whole story. She moved out of the apartment and back in with Paris."

"Oh, man! I had a feeling that was coming. How's she holding up?"

"Not good, Luke. She's devastated. I'm worried about her. We talked for about an hour and she cried the whole time. I hate that my baby's hurting so much."

"That snotty little punk needs his ass kicked!" Luke was pissed. Who did he think he was, treating Rory like crap?

"I feel bad for asking this, since you've worked so hard on dinner and everything, but I was thinking we might drive up there and have dinner with Rory instead. Paris and Doyle are doing this reconciliation date thing and she's there all alone."

"Just let me put this stuff away, and we'll go." He began reaching for storage containers to put the pasta and chicken in.

"Really? You wouldn't mind? I mean, you put a lot of effort into this," she said indicating the food on the stove.

"It'll keep. We can always reheat it later. Right now, Rory needs us."

"Thank you for understanding."

"Why don't we stop by the diner on the way out of town and grab some stuff from there for her? I'm guessing she could probably use some comfort food right about now and I just made some of those triple chocolate brownies she loves."

Lorelai beamed at his thoughtfulness. "That's a great idea! You're such a good dad!"

Luke smiled at hearing Lorelai refer to him as a dad to Rory. He'd always loved her as if she was his own, but he knew he wasn't her real father. He recalled her twenty-first birthday party and how elated he'd felt when she'd introduced him as her future step-father and now Lorelai had called him 'dad' in reference to her. "It's no big deal," he said as he finished putting the food away. Being there for Rory just came naturally to him. "Now, come on! Let's go take care of our girl."


	16. Chapter 16

Rory wandered aimlessly through the apartment after Doyle and Paris had left. She glanced at all the boxes full of her stuff that she'd brought back over here, but couldn't yet bring herself to unpack. She wondered if she'd done the right thing by breaking up with Logan. She felt she had because if she couldn't forgive him, how could they have any kind of real future together? But on the other hand, if it was right, why did it feel so wrong? Why did she have this aching hole in her heart? She walked over the one of the boxes and pulled out the pink Birkin bag he'd bought her. She recalled her grandmother's fascination with it. To her it was just a gift from the man she loved, but to her grandmother, it was something else entirely. She'd explained to her the significance of the bag with a tinge of envy in her voice. At the time Rory had thought it was sweet that Logan had bought her such a coveted gift, now she just thought it was another way for him to show off his money, like her dad was doing by paying for Yale.

Rory felt another pang in her heart as she thought about her father. He'd said he wanted to make an effort to really get to know her after their conversation the previous evening, yet he hadn't called. She was hoping that he'd make the first move, but so far, nothing. Thinking of her father made her think of all the events that had transpired over the weekend and a new pain started. She was feeling like she was losing her mom and 'dad' to April. She knew that her mom and Luke both loved her, but she didn't feel like part of the family anymore. She had to admit to herself that she was jealous of all the affection Luke had been bestowing upon the younger girl. Maybe it was childish, but she wasn't ready to share her parents. She felt a fresh batch of tears starting just as there was a knock on the door. She dropped the Birkin back into the box it had been housed in and undid the many locks on the front door to find her mother and future step-father on the other side, laden with Luke's bags. They both set their bags down and reached for her and wrapped her in a tight embrace. She clung to both of them as she silently let the tears fall; her entire body was wracked with spasms as she held on for dear life, not wanting to let either of them go. They just held her without saying a word and let her get it all out. The three of them just stood there like that for a good ten minutes before Rory released Luke and Lorelai and wiped her puffy eyes.

"What are you guys doing here?" she asked, though she was happy to see them.

Lorelai picked up one of the discarded bags and held it up for her to see. "We come bearing the perfect comfort food, Luke's thick juicy cheeseburgers and triple chocolate brownies."

"There may be a couple of other surprises in one of these bags too," Luke said with a smile as he picked up the bags he'd dropped and the three of them walked over to the couch together and set the bags of food on the coffee table. They sat on the couch, Rory in the middle with Luke and Lorelai on each side of her.

"This is so great, but you guys didn't have to do this. Drive all the way up here to bring me food when you've gotta be busy trying to get your wedding plans back on track."

"We've got plenty of time for that, plus we've got half the town and your grandmother helping. Right now, you're more important," Luke said as he brushed her hair out of her face. "You wanna talk about it?"

"Maybe in a little while," she replied. "But first, I want to see what you brought me." She began to tear into the bags and pull out container after container of Luke's cooking.

'Just keep in mind, it's not all just for you," her mother said. "I'm eating for two here." She patted her stomach as she said this.

"Obviously this isn't for me," Rory said as she thrust a salad container at Luke.

"Obviously," Luke said with a laugh. "You definitely inherited your mother's disgusting eating habits."

Rory laughed back,"You say that like it's a bad thing. Besides, it's partially your fault. You've been our enabler for years." She smiled the first real smile that she had all day. It felt good just to have them here and to know that they were there just for her.

"Don't I know it," he said with a grimace, thinking about how much he'd contributed to their unhealthy eating habits over the years, but he couldn't help it. He just wanted to make them happy.

They sat on the couch and ate while Rory slowly started filling them in on the events of the day and her decision to break up with Logan. She then proceeded to give them snippets of her conversation with her father from the night before and how Christopher had admitted that he didn't really know her, but that she was disappointed that he didn't yet seem inclined to do anything about it.

When she grew silent again, Lorelai excused herself to go to the bathroom while Luke sat thoughtfully for a moment contemplating what Rory had just told them about her father and then said, "Maybe you need to go a little easier on him," not quite believing that he was defending Christopher, but there it was. "Now that he realizes it, it may take him some time to really come to terms with it. I know I've been feeling like a complete loser because I don't really know April all that well."

Rory visibly stiffened at the mention of April, her insecurity about her place in Luke's life coming back to haunt her. She stood and started digging in one of the boxes until she found the jewelry box she was looking for. "I should give this back to you," she said handing it to him.

Luke didn't have to open it to know what was inside. It was his mother's necklace that he'd given her as a twenty-first birthday present. "You don't want it? I thought you liked it." He looked at her with hurt in his eyes.

"I do, Luke. I love it, but it's a family heirloom and I'm not really your family. You should give it to April."

"No, Rory, you _are _family to me. That's why I gave it to you. I wanted you to have something that came from my family." Lorelai walked back into the room but didn't take her place on the couch with them when she saw what was going on.

"But that was before you knew about April. She's your _real _daughter. She should have it."

"Hey, you listen to me. You and I may not be related by blood, but you _are_ my daughter in every way that counts. I gave this to you because I know that if my mother had lived long enough to meet you, she'd have loved you just as much as I do, and she'd have wanted you to have it."

"You don't _know _that that's true, not if she had a granddaughter of her own to give it to," she said as more tears began sliding down her cheeks. She turned her head away from him, not wanting him to see how much she was hurting over this.

"I _do_ know that. Rory, look at me," he said as he cupped her chin and turned her head back to face him. "Where is all this coming from? You know that I love you, don't you?" She simply shrugged. He thought about Anna's words from the previous evening and realized that she'd been right. Rory _was_ jealous of April. "Hey, Kid. I love you as if you were my own. Having April in my life doesn't change that. It just means I have someone else to love. Now, if you really don't want this necklace, I'll take it back, but not to give to April. I'll just put it away and it'll sit there and collect dust because there's no one but you that I want to give it to."

She sniffled and said, "Really?"

"Yes, really," he said and pulled her into a hug. "Now dry your eyes and stop worrying. I'm not going anywhere. I'm gonna be in your life for a long, long time."

"Ok," she said as she let go of her future step-father.

"Good. Now, do you want this or not?" He held out the box."

"Yes, I want it," she replied as she took it back from him. "I just didn't want you to regret giving it to me and not saving it for your own kid. I mean aside from April, you guys are having a kid together."

Lorelai felt the need to say something, "Rory, are you upset that Luke and I are having a baby?"

"No, Mom! I've always wanted to be a big sister and it's not like I've really gotten to do that with Gig since Dad's not really around. And you guys are so close, it's only right that you should have kids together. It's just that…" she stopped. She didn't want to hurt her mother's feelings by telling her what was really on her mind.

"What is it, Sweets? You know you can tell me anything."

"It's stupid and childish."

"Hey, if I've done something to bug you or hurt you, I want to know about it. I don't want us going another six months without talking to each other. The first time was hard enough."

"It's just that when I came home this weekend, I mainly just wanted to get away from Logan for awhile and clear my head. Have some time to think and maybe get some motherly advice on what to do. But then this weekend got so crazy, with Grandma and Grandpa visiting and April turning up missing, and Dad showing up and Luke moving in and I still didn't know what to do about Logan, I just wanted some one on one time with my mom to sort things out. With April and the baby and Luke and everything, I started to feel like I'm never gonna have that with you again. Then you wanted April to be a bridesmaid and walk down the aisle with me and I thought this is _my _mom's wedding. Why should I share the spotlight? It's selfish and stupid. Classic only child syndrome, not wanting to share her mom with anyone else."

"Hon, that's not stupid. You and I can hang one on one whenever you want. Just say the word, though as busy as my life's been lately, I might need a week's notice."

Rory laughed. "So, no spur of the moment trips to Vegas, huh?" She hugged her Mom.

"Oh, Kid, I'm so sorry. I was trying so hard to make April feel welcome that I didn't realize you felt like you'd been left out in the cold." Lorelai let go of her daughter and looked her in the eye. "Why didn't you say anything?"

"You guys were so happy. I didn't want to ruin that."

"You should never be afraid to come to either one of us with anything you want to talk about," Luke said. "You know we're always here for you."

"I know."

"Now, let's talk about this apartment," He'd kept his mouth shut up until now, because Rory was upset, but the more he looked at the apartment, the more he realized was wrong with it. "You can't be serious about living here."

"I am."

"Are you kidding me? This place is a complete dump!"Luke stood up and launched into full rant mode as he listed everything that was wrong with the apartment. "Half the stuff in here is broken or on its way to being broken, You've got cracks in the ceiling, falling apart fixtures, fourteen locks on the door, a staircase leading up here that should have been condemned in the 40's and a pack of guys on the street downstairs that look like they're ready to axe-murder you in your sleep! If just this room looks this bad, I can't imagine what the plumbing looks like! You can't live here! There are better apartments than this! Hell, there are better sewers than this!"

"Are you done?" Lorelai asked.

"No, I'm not done! You've seen this place before. What the hell were you thinking letting her live like this? We've got to find her a better place to live than this. If it costs more, I don't care. I'll put up the money for it, but she can't live in this hellhole."

"Luke, there are no other places on or around campus," Rory said. "Believe me I looked when Paris kicked me out. I appreciate your concern, really, but I'm fine here. Like you said, I've got fourteen locks on the door," she laughed at the exaggeration, "plus Paris and Doyle are getting pretty tough. They'll look after me. Besides, it's college. Aren't college apartments supposed to be crappy?"

"Well, if you insist on living in this rathole, I'm coming back up later this week with my toolbox to fix some things around here."

"That's not necessary, really."

"Yes, it is. I'm not gonna have you living in squalor. You're getting stuff fixed around here whether you like it or not."

"Yes, Sir," She said and gave him a mock salute.

"Cute! Very cute," he said. "What am I going to do with you two?"

"Aw, you love us," Lorelai sat. "Who could resist all the obvious charms of the Gilmore girls?"

"No one!" Rory chimed in. "We're irresistible."

"You're crazy, both of you," Luke said.

"If we're crazy, what does that make you for hanging with us?"

"Completely off my rocker," he said shaking his head.

Luke and Lorelai stayed around awhile longer and helped Rory unpack and talked about everything under the sun, Luke nearly started another rant when he saw the condition of the bathroom until Lorelai silenced him and reminded him that Rory was an adult. He grumbled but kept his mouth shut. They hung around until Doyle and Paris got home so that Rory wouldn't be alone. As they were getting ready to depart, Lorelai took her daughter aside for a private word with her.

"Hey, listen, the thing about April being a bridesmaid and you two walking down the aisle together was just an idea. We don't have to do it. I don't know if she'd even _want _to do it. I just wanted her to feel included. That's why I thought of it."

"No, Mom. It's ok," Rory told her. "It's your wedding. You should have it the way you want it. if you want April and me to walk down the aisle together than that's what we'll do."

"I don't want you to do anything you feel uncomfortable with. If you really don't like April…"

"It's not that I don't like April. I was just feeling a little left out, that's all. I actually do like April. She's a pretty cool kid," she said with a smile. "I mean for a science nerd," she added. "I just let the little green-eyed monster bite me in the ass."

Lorelai laughed and hugged her daughter. "I love you, Kid."

"I love you, too, Mom." She said as Luke walked over to say his goodbyes. Rory released her mom and hugged Luke. "And I love you, Luke."

"Same here, Rory," he replied as he hugged her back. "And just so you know, I fully expect you to see you wearing that pearl necklace on our June third."

"You got it," she said as she released him. "It'll be like your mom's at your wedding in spirit even if she can't be there in person."

"Thanks, Kid," he replied. "And you call me if Logan starts giving you any trouble and needs a good ass-kicking."

She laughed. "I will," she said as she watched them walk out the door feeling better than she had in days.


	17. Chapter 17

Dinner at the elder Gilmore house in Hartford was much more subdued than the one the younger Gilmores were having with Luke in New Haven. As usual Emily and Richard sat at opposite ends of the table while they ate.

"So, how was your day, my dear?" Richard asked his wife.

"Very interesting," she replied, thinking back to the events of the day.

"And you trip to Stars Hollow? You find a way to have your own 'male bonding' experience with Luke yet?" he asked with a smirk.

"Oh, stop! It's easier for you than it is for me. I hardly know what to say to the man. We have nothing in common."

"Now, that's not true at all. You have one very important thing in common. You both love Lorelai."

"Yes, I suppose that's true, but the last time I talked to him about his relationship with Lorelai, it turned into this huge battle between me and Lorelai and she actually told me to shut up and stay out of her life. We've come so far lately, Lorelai and I, and I don't want to do anything that will compromise that. She's actually letting me in a little. I never imagined in a million years that she'd ask me for any kind of help with her wedding plans. Even though taking care of the guest list is a small task, it's nice to be included."

"Hmmm…" Richard replied thoughtfully.

"What is it, Richard?"

"Nothing, Emily," he lied, looked down at his plate and changed the subject. "The lamb is delicious. I should complement the maid. What's her name?"

"Lacey, Macy, Who knows?" she replied vaguely. Her maids disappeared so fast, she never really cared to learn their names. "And don't think I don't know what you're doing, Richard Gilmore. Something's bothering you and you're changing the subject to avoid talking about it."

Richard sighed. "I was just thinking about what you said about Lorelai including you in her wedding plans and that got me thinking about the traditional role a father is supposed to play in his daughter's wedding."

"And?"Emily probed.

"Well, it just makes me wonder about my role on the big day. I can't help but think that Lorelai's so _untraditional_ that maybe she won't want me to walk her down the aisle and give her away."

"Don't be absurd! Of course you're going to give her away! That's a father's job!"

"Maybe to you and to me, but Lorelai doesn't view things the way we do when it comes to these sorts of things."

"Then maybe you should ask her about it."

"I can't do that! Then she'll ask me to do it, just because she feels obligated to, not because she really wants to."

"This entire family is completely crazy! Why don't we just say what's on our minds anymore?"

"We've done that before and look where it's gotten us. We've gone months without talking to our daughter. We didn't even know that she was engaged to Luke until six months after the engagement happened."

"The important thing is that we know now."

"I'm surprised at you, Emily. A year ago, something like that would have sent you into a flying rage."

"I'm not saying that I wasn't hurt. I found out about it at Rory's birthday party of all places, and not because Lorelai told me. I just happened to notice the diamond ring she was wearing. But looking back, I can understand why she didn't share it with us. We haven't exactly kept quiet about our lack of enthusiasm when it comes to her relationship with Luke."

"Do you think maybe that's why she hasn't asked me to give her away? Perhaps she thinks I won't want to do it because it's Luke she's marrying."

"That's possible," Emily said thoughtfully, thinking about the lack of family approval they'd shown her over the course of her relationship with Luke. "Oh, by the way, I wanted to tell you. While I was in Stars Hollow today, I was introduced to Luke's sister."

"Really? How did that go?"

"It was a little bizarre! As soon as Luke introduced us, she threw her arms around me and hugged me as if we'd been best friends for ages. Then she started talking a mile a minute about the wedding and the baby and talking so fast that I only caught about every other word she said. She's quite the extrovert, very much the opposite of her brother."

Richard laughed raucously. "I wish I'd been there to see that! You being hugged by a complete stranger. That must have been a sight."

Emily scowled at her husband. "It's not funny. I was floored! I didn't know how to react to something like that. Then when she'd left, Luke started apologizing for her behavior and it seemed like he was embarrassed by his sister's exuberance toward me."

Richard continued laughing at Emily's embarrassment. "Well, what did you say to him?"

"What could I say? I couldn't exactly say what was on my mind about the only family member he has left, could I?"

"Emily Gilmore, you hypocrite!" he husband said. "After the lecture you just gave me on speaking our minds, you didn't say what you were thinking?"

"That's only gotten me into trouble where Luke is concerned. Lorelai is so protective of him and her life in Stars Hollow, I was sure it would lead to another fight. Besides, it's not like I hated the woman on sight. It's just that I was a little taken aback by her spontaneous displays of affection, especially considering how reserved Luke is compared to her."

"Well, just because they come from the same parents doesn't mean that they're going to have identical personalities."

"I know that. I'd meant to ask Lorelai a little more about her, but then we started talking about the guest list and her wedding plans and she told me she'd asked Liz to be a bridesmaid, so I didn't want to probe any further. I didn't want her to think I was taking a swipe at her future sister-in-law."

"You can't keep walking on eggshells around Lorelai just because you think the two of you will fight. You have to be honest with her."

"But I'm just starting to get Lorelai to share things with me. I don't want to ruin that, and as far as being honest goes, you've not been the most straightforward either. You haven't mentioned to Lorelai that you want to walk her down the aisle on her wedding day."

"I guess that's something we'll both have to work on, isn't it?"

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

On the drive back to Stars Hollow, Luke and Lorelai sat in his worn out Chevy, both engrossed in their thoughts. Lorelai was kicking herself for not noticing how much Rory was hurting. She knew that there'd been something off about her all weekend, but she'd thought it mostly had to with the whole Logan/bridesmaid debacle. She'd been so wrapped up in her own drama that she hadn't even considered the fact that she herself was hurting her daughter. She hadn't meant to make Rory feel out of the loop or cast aside, but she had. She just had such a strong desire for all of them to be happy, that she was trying too hard to bond with April, and making Rory immensely unhappy in the process. She hated herself for making her little girl feel like she couldn't talk to her about it. They'd always talked about everything. She'd failed her daughter by thinking that since Rory was a grown-up that she didn't need her mommy's shoulder to cry on anymore. She resolved then and there to make it up her in any way she could. She wondered if maybe Rory would want to go shopping with her sometime soon, one of their favorite pastimes. She reminded herself to call and ask her. She thought maybe she'd buy her some new clothes for her new single life, not that she was trying to buy Rory's affections, but she knew her daughter usually couldn't refuse a Mom-sponsored shopping trip and it would give them an opportunity to talk one on one.

Luke was thinking about how much of an ass he'd been spending all his time with April, trying to forge a relationship with her, while ignoring the women he already loved. He'd realized due to Jess' bluntness that he'd hurt Lorelai, but he hadn't realized until tonight when Rory tried to give his mother's necklace back to him how much he'd been hurting her too. _God, I'm stupid,_ he mentally berated himself. He realized that Anna was right. Things weren't going to just work themselves out overnight no matter how much he might want them to. His thoughts drifted to April wondering what she was feeling about everything. If Rory was jealous of her, was she also feeling the same way about Rory. He knew he'd talked about Rory a lot with April before the two of them met each other. Did he talk about her too much? There was no denying that he and Rory had a father/daughter relationship even if it wasn't in the traditional sense. Was April seeing that and feeling jealous herself? She must have seen it, he decided. As her mother had pointed out, she was a very perceptive girl. He made a mental note to have a talk with her about it the following afternoon when she was planning on visiting him at the diner. He was deeply touched by Lorelai's desire to have April be a bridesmaid in their wedding. The thought hadn't even occurred to him until Rory brought it up; of course deciding on bridesmaids was really a girly thing anyway.

"So, you really want April to be a bridesmaid?" he inquired.

"Yeah, April's your daughter. I thought it would be nice if we included her in our wedding plans. If you don't like the idea, that's fine too."

"No, I like the idea. I just wondered why you hadn't mentioned it to me."

"I was planning to tonight at dinner, but when I got that call from Rory, everything else flew out of my head. Thanks by the way."

"For what?"

"For understanding about changing our dinner plans and for what you said to Rory tonight."

"Hey, I didn't mind. Rory needed us and besides I meant every word I said to her tonight. She _is _like a daughter to me, with or without April in my life. That's never gonna change. Besides, I enjoyed having dinner with both of you."

"Oh, speaking of dinners, my mother told me in no uncertain terms, that you are expected to make more frequent appearances at Friday night dinner, starting this Friday."

"Ugh," Luke groaned. "I hate having dinner with your parents. I have to get dressed up and put on a big show of making idle chitchat with your dad and drink scotch when I'd rather have a beer and that's completely leaving out the fact that your mother hates me. Isn't it enough that we just spent two days with them? Is this some new form of torture she cooked up for me to watch me squirm now that she's not blatantly insulting me to my face?"

"I don't think so. I think she's actually making an effort to be a part of our lives now that she knows she's going to be a grandma again. I mean think about it. I just spent time with her three days in a row and we didn't fight once. That's progress."

"Maybe she's just holding all her verbal abuse in so she can get it out all at once Friday night."

"It doesn't matter. You're going. This will be the first Friday dinner since they found out I'm pregnant and I need you there with me."

"I'll go, but I won't like it."

"Look on the bright side. Rory will be there. Maybe she can act as a buffer between us and them. Or maybe she can tell them about the break-up and they'll be so focused on that they won't have the energy to come after us."

"You want to use Rory's pain to your own advantage?" he asked disbelievingly.

"No, of course not, but it's something they're bound to ask about, especially if she sends them another change of address card. Especially considering they've got the perfect Cape Cod wedding all planned in their heads for Rory and Logan."

"You're kidding."

"Nope, you should have heard the way they gushed about it; Like Rory was their daughter instead of me." They fell silent for a moment both lost in thought again.

Luke spoke again first. "You know your mom was a little weird around me today after you left."

"You mean weirder than usual?"

"Weird in a different way," he clarified. "After I gave her the list of my extended family, she just kind of looked at me funny, and then she started to leave, and then turned back around like she wanted to say something, but just kept her mouth and walked out the door."

"Weird, I've never known her to want to say something and not do it."

"Which leads back to my theory that she's saving up all of her scathing remarks for Friday night."

"I guess we'll see Friday night."

"Yeah," he said hoping that he was wrong. He didn't want to start out his marriage with Lorelai by alienating her from her mother just when they seemed like they were starting to understand each other a little better. He sighed. _Just get through the next two months, _he told himself. Then they'd be husband and wife and Emily would have no choice but to accept him.


	18. Chapter 18

Anna walked into the Dragonfly Inn not quite knowing what to expect. She knew from her daughter that Luke had invested in the place. She hoped that Lorelai wouldn't think she was ambushing her, but she really wanted to talk to her one on one about their present situation. She walked up to the front desk.

"Excuse me," she said to the elegantly dressed man behind the desk. "I'm looking for Lorelai Gilmore."

"I'm sorry, but she's unavailable at the moment," Michel replied in a somewhat snarky tone, revolted by the fact that Lorelai was in the bathroom adjacent to her office once again losing her breakfast. "But I'd certainly be happy to help you with anything you need. Do you need a room? A reservation?"

"No, I don't need a room. I actually just need to talk to Lorelai personally. It's kind of important."

"So, I suppose I'm just supposed to fetch her like a dog," he replied. Now that he knew this woman wasn't a potential guest, he felt no more need for the fake niceties he put on for their guests.

"Well, I'd really appreciate it."

"Fine," he said in a huff. "And while I'm at it, I think I'll just change my name to Rover too." He trudged into the office in a huff and knocked on the bathroom door. "Lorelai! There's a very persistent woman here to see you."

"Ugh!" she groaned from the bathroom. "It's not my mother, is it?"

"If it were your mother, I would have said it was your mother."

Lorelai opened the door. "I'm so not in the mood for your attitude today, the way I feel" as she followed Michel out of the office and toward the front desk.

"Well, you know there are certain precautions you could have taken to prevent your greasy diner man from doing this to you in the first place," Michel pointed out derisively.

"As If I need a lecture on contraceptives from you."

Anna noticed that Lorelai was looking a little green. "Morning sickness?" she questioned remembering the feeling well.

"Yeah," Lorelai confirmed. "This is the mother of all morning sickness. "If you're looking for Luke, he's not here. He's at the diner, although he'll be here in about half an hour or so. He's supposed to go with me to my doctor's appointment."

"No, I'm looking for you. I thought if you weren't too busy we could have a talk."

"Sure. Michel can handle things up here. We can go sit down into the dining room. I'm feeling a strong urge to sit down right about now."

"Yes, because I live to serve," the sardonic Frenchman replied.

"Watch it, Michel, or I'll have you making special friends with Cletus. Think about what that would do to your expensive tailor-made suits," she said walking toward the dining room while Anna followed. Lorelai collapsed into the nearest available chair. Ann took the seat opposite her.

"Cletus?"Anna inquired

"One of our horses," Lorelai replied. "So you wanted to talk? I hope you haven't changed your mind again about Luke going on this trip with April. He's really looking forward to it."

"No, I haven't, but I do have some concerns that I wanted to share with you. Luke and I had a long talk the other night about his visitation with April and I shared some of them with him, but I don't think he quite got what I was saying. I'm hoping as a single mom yourself you'll understand a little more where I'm coming from."

"I'm listening."

"Well, for starters, April filled me in on all the details of her day with you on Sunday and there are a few things that have me a little worried; The biggest one of those being the confrontation between Luke and your ex in front of April."

"That wasn't entirely his fault. There's been animosity between the two of them for a long time now. Chris should have known better than to ever set foot in the diner, especially when you consider the fact that the last time the two of them were in a room together, Chris tried to break us up by insinuating to Luke that I was just keeping him around until something better came along, which is the farthest thing from the truth. That's aside from the fact that during that same argument last year, Luke reminded Christopher of what a horrible father he'd been to Rory over the years.

"Luke is very protective of Rory," Anna commented.

"Yes, he is," Lorelai agreed, remembering his rant the previous evening about the condition of Rory's apartment. "He'd be that way with April too, if you'd just give him a chance. Our kid's not even born yet and he's already gone full speed into protective daddy mode. He's already barred me from drinking coffee and eating rare meat and about a dozen other things that he thinks might harm this baby."

"I get it. In fact I got it the other day. I was wrong to think that Luke wouldn't be a good father, but I'm still concerned about what kind of influences April is going to be exposed to when she comes to visit the two of you. While I think you're a nice enough person, Lorelai, and we definitely had a bonding moment over the whole single motherhood life, I still don't know you and I have to know my kid is going to be safe and feel secure around you. She's a very intuitive kid; sometimes scary intuitive for a twelve year old and she picks up on everything around her, even the unspoken vibes."

"Did she tell you that she felt any particular 'vibes' on Sunday?"

"She said that while you and her dad made her feel very welcome, she thought that maybe your daughter didn't like her much and that bothered her. She also said she felt a little uncomfortable in your home, as if she didn't belong there."

"Of course she belongs there. She's a part of Luke and it's his home too. I want her to feel included in our family."

"She wants that too, but with her witnessing the closeness between Luke and your daughter and the face that your house is pretty much a shrine to her, April kind of felt like she was intruding."

"But she's not! The house has a lot of stuff pertaining to Rory because it's been just hers and mine for a long time, but the fact is, it's _your_ fault that Luke doesn't have any pictures or memorabilia from April's life to put around the house!" Lorelai had had it. She'd kept her mouth shut long enough about this situation. She couldn't stand it that Luke had been hurt so much by the fact that he'd never known he had a daughter and that he'd missed out on so much in April's life. She was angry that anyone could possible believe that he wouldn't be a good father, especially when he'd been so good to Rory who wasn't even his kid. "You purposely kept him from knowing anything about her existence!"

"What would you have done in my situation? I was single, pregnant and terrified!"

"You think I don't know what that's like? I went through the same thing, only I had the added complication of still being in high school!"

Luke walked into to the Dragonfly to pick up Lorelai for their appointment and immediately heard shouting coming from the dining room and sprinted toward it.

"Well, maybe you shouldn't have been such a slut in high school!" Anna shouted as she stood up, not noticing Luke walking toward her.

"Look who's talking!" Lorelai shouted back also rising. "At least I knew who the father of my kid was! And guess what, I told him about it as soon as I knew!"

"Hey!" Luke interrupted, "What the hell is going on here?"

Both women ignored him as Lorelai continued. "I knew even at sixteen that Christopher would be a lousy father to Rory! I knew he was way too immature to be a father, but I told him anyway! A father has a right to know he's got a kid!"

"Like I had a right to be the first to know you were pregnant this time?" Luke said. "I should have been told first, but you talked to your mother about it before me! A woman who, in case you've forgotten, hates me with a fiery vengeance, and has found countless ways to insult me over the last two years!"

"I already told you, I didn't tell her! She guessed on her own! Like I'd ever tell my mother anything like that voluntarily!"

"What the hell does that mean? You were never gonna tell her about the baby? Just like you never told her about our engagement!"

"Hello!? She'd been helping us make wedding plans, so she obviously knows we're engaged!"

"I'm talking about when we first got engaged! Your parents didn't know about it until six months later! And I had to be the one to tell Rory about it because you hadn't told her either!"

"I can't believe you're still pissed about that almost a year later!"

"Well, it bothers me, OK? The happiest day of my life was when we got engaged and you acted like you didn't want the people closest to you to know! What am I to you, just one more way for you to rebel against your mother?!"

"How can you say that after all we've been through together? Don't you realize by now that I don't give a damn what my mother thinks? I certainly didn't care last year that she wanted me to be with Christopher and not you!"

"Well, maybe you should marry Christopher! I mean you just said that you told him right way when you were pregnant with Rory, but you waited to tell me! If you did marry him, that would certainly get you back on your mother's good side!"

"You're crazy and I don't mean just your run of the mill sniffing glue crazy. I mean you are padded room 'don't forget to take you Thorazine" crazy if you think _that's_ ever gonna happen! I refused to marry him when I was carrying his kid! What makes you think I'd marry him now when I'm carrying your kid?"

"I don't know, it seems kind of poetic to me! I raised his kid! He might as well raise mine!"

"Yeah, well, I don't want that. I want to marry you! I'm engaged to you!"

"So what? You were engaged to that teacher, but you didn't follow through and marry him!"

"I didn't love Max! I love _you!"_

"Well, I love you too, Dammit!"

"Then what the hell are we fighting for?"

"God, I don't know," Luke said a little calmer. He paused as he thought about what Lorelai had said. "You really didn't love Max?"

"No, I guess not," she said shaking her head. "It was always you, Luke. I don't think I ever really acknowledged that until now."

Anna who'd been silently watching their argument escalate finally spoke up," Are you two done now?"

"I'm done," Lorelai said. "You done?" she said to Luke.

"I'm good," he replied.

"I'm not so good," Lorelai said and made a mad dash for the bathroom.

"Lorelai?" Luke questioned as he watched her.

"Morning sickness," Anna explained. One of the joys of motherhood."

He turned to Anna. "Do you wanna tell me what you were doing here yelling at my fiancée?"

"You mean the same fiancée you were just yelling at?" Anna countered.

"Touché," Luke said. "I guess I've still got some unresolved issues with Lorelai's ex."

"I'd say she's got some with me."

"You think?"

"I didn't come here intending to pick a fight with her. I came here to talk to her about how April's feeling. I was hoping the single mom thing we have in common would help her understand what I've been feeling about this whole situation."

"What about what I've been feeling, Anna? God, you are so selfish! You've had her to yourself all these years that I could've been a part of. Did you ever once stop to think about what it's like for me to try to be a father to a kid who's half-grown? Do you know that I nearly destroyed my relationship with Lorelai because I was trying so hard to be a good dad and focus on April that I forgot about the people closest to me? I broke poor Rory's heart because she thought that I didn't want her around anymore now that I've got April and I love that kid as if she were mine!"

"More than you own daughter?"

"I didn't say that, Anna."

"But you don't deny it!"

"I love Rory! I'm not denying it, but that doesn't mean that I love her more than April, or for that matter, more than this new kid on the way, but the fact is I know Rory better and that's because Lorelai has always let me be a part of Rory's life, something that you never did."

"I'm sorry, Luke. I've said it like a thousand times. I don't know how many ways I can say it and make you believe it."

"Here's a thought, stop saying you're sorry and do something about it! Quit jumping on every little thing that goes wrong or possibly _could _go wrong when April's hanging out with me and Lorelai and just let us be! I'm not gonna be a perfect dad overnight! I'm trying, but that doesn't mean that I always say or do the right things! I always knew what to do with Rory because I've known her so long and because I had Lorelai there to help me, but this is new territory for me! And one other thing, for God's sake stop threatening to take my visits with April away if you don't think they're going exactly as they should! I'm new at this and you have to understand that I'm gonna screw up from time to time!"

"Ok," Anna replied when Luke was done ranting.

"Ok? That's it? You're not gonna yell at me again?"

"I think there's been more than enough yelling around here for one day."

"You can say that again," Lorelai said as she walked back into the room.

"Excuse me a second," Luke said as he walked over to the swinging door that led to the kitchen and gave it a hard shove. He was rewarded with a loud "Ouch!" from the other side as Sookie came through it, rubbing her shoulder and joined them in the dining room.

"I thought I heard some shuffling on the other side of the door," He said with a smirk.

"Sookie!" Lorelai admonished her friend.

"What?" the chef replied. "It was getting way too quiet in here. I couldn't hear what you guys were saying anymore."

Luke walked back over to Lorelai and wrapped his arms around her. "Are you ok?" he asked her with a worried look on his face. "You look pale."

She nodded, "Just really nauseated. I think your kid hates me. I don't remember ever being this sick with Rory."

"It's probably just my DNA kicking in in this kid rejecting all the poisonous crap you pile into your body."

"Bite your tongue! This kid is gonna have to learn to love junk food like I do! God, I hope this kid doesn't grow up to be a vegetarian or something."

"Well, as long as it's one of the health nut, Bob Barker 'say not to real fur' vegetarians and not one of those scary 'meat is murder let's burn all hamburger joints to the ground' vegetarians."

Lorelai laughed at this and put her arms around his waist and just leaned on him. Anna looked on in awe. Not ten minutes ago they were screaming at each other and now they were cracking jokes and holding each other as if nothing had ever happened. She wondered if their relationship had always been like this. Watching them, she felt a little envious. Not of Lorelai being with Luke. That ship had sailed long ago and she no longer thought of him in that way. She was envious of the obvious closeness between them and how they seemed like they would be able to overcome anything if this was any indication. She'd never had a relationship that solid. She worried a little though; people who were that close also were the ones who could hurt each other the most. She tentatively approached them, feeling the need to apologize to Lorelai.

"Hey, Lorelai," she began. "I'm sorry I called you a slut.!"

"Don't worry about it, I was called worse names in high school, some of them by my own mother" she replied " Besides, I have been known to be a _little _slutty at times, right Hon?" she said as she looked up at Luke.

"You don't want me to answer that," he said grinning down at her.

"Hey!' She said as she smacked him and wriggled out of his arms.

"Hey, you asked for it!"

"I'm ignoring you, now." She turned to Anna. "Since we're doing the apology thing, I wanted to say I'm sorry for lashing out at you like that and insinuating that you were slutty."

"It's ok. If I'd heard my story about someone else, I'd think I was slutty too."

"I hate to interrupt, but Lorelai, if we don't get out of here soon, we're going to miss our appointment."

"Oh, Crap! Yeah, we gotta go," she grabbed Luke's hand and they headed out the door, leaving Sookie and Anna alone in the room.

"So," Sookie said, "did you really call my best friend a slut?"


	19. Chapter 19

Luke felt a jumble of emotions as he walked back into the diner after his and Lorelai's doctor's appointment. He'd been really nervous at first, not really sure what he was supposed to do or if he should even be there. Lorelai had reassured him that he was exactly where he belonged and that she wanted him by her side throughout the whole process. Then after her pregnancy had been confirmed the doctor started asking both of them about their medical history. Luke was a little freaked out by this at first until the doctor has explained to him that it was important to know the history of both parents so that he could look for any signs of possible trouble early on in the pregnancy and curb any potential health risk to their unborn child. When Lorelai had told him that she was getting sick more frequently than she had with Rory, he seemed unconcerned at first, noting that every pregnancy was different, until she revealed that it had been almost twenty-two years between pregnancies. The doctor informed that based on her last cycle, she was approximately 8-9 weeks along just as she'd suspected, making the baby due on approximately November 11th. Even though it was still early, the doctor had insisted on performing an ultrasound, given Lorelai's age and the long gap between pregnancies, something he didn't usually do until about 12-14 weeks. Luke had been amazed by what he saw as he sat there beside Lorelai holding her hand, though he really couldn't make heads or tails of the blurs on the screen. As the doctor gave them a guided tour of Lorelai's uterus it became really real to him in that moment. She was having his baby. Just as this was sinking in, the doctor bowled him over even further by announcing that she was having not one, but two babies.

"Twins?" He'd said in shock, a thousand thoughts running through his head all at once. Would they be able to handle two babies at once? Would they be able to still run their businesses successfully and still give their children the attention they needed? Were the demands of two infants going to be too much for them? Was this going to put even more strain on their new marriage when their children arrived? What were they going to do about their too-small house? Where were they going to put two babies in their home? What about their vehicles? Neither one of them had a car big enough to haul around two car seats, plus the two of them. They were going to need a family car. Could they afford this? Did he have enough money saved? What about the long run? Could he afford to send two kids to college? April would be ready for college in just a few short years and she had her heart set on Yale which was not cheap. Would there be money left over by the time these two got to that age? What about Rory and April? How would they take the news? Would this cause more drama with their daughters? What about the Gilmores? Would they handle the news well that they were going to have not one, but two new grandchildren? Would they be supportive or would they be angry? Would Emily butt in and try to take over when they told her? Would Richard give him another lecture? What about all the stuff Richard had told him about caring for a pregnant woman? Was this going to make pregnancy harder on Lorelai? Was it different when she was carrying two? Would she need to eat more? Sleep more? Is this why she was sicker than she thought she should be? What about when she gave birth? He knew it was a painful process. Would having twins make it worse? He hated the idea of seeing the woman he loved hurting in any way. He felt a pang of guilt. This was his fault. He'd done this to her and it was going to be agonizing for her to bring his children into the world.

The doctor answered as many of Luke's questions about the pregnancy as he could, educating that she would probably feel more tired than usual and need as much rest as possible. She would also need to take in roughly 2700 calories a day. Luke assured him that would be no problem as Lorelai loved to eat, earning him a look of contempt from his bride-to-be. He also told him that he wanted to monitor her closely in the coming weeks to make sure she was gaining the right amount of weight as twins tended to be smaller than single births and needed all the help they could get. The good news the doctor had said was that they only had about four weeks left of the first trimester which meant that they were almost out the danger zone for miscarriage, which was which was a higher risk in early pregnancy to mothers over thirty-five, particularly when twins were involved. Luke felt an icy wave of terror pass through him as he heard these words. It hadn't even occurred to him that their baby, correction, _babies_ might not make it. He noticed the look of alarm on Lorelai's face mirrored his own and gently squeezed her hand as the doctor reassured them that everything seemed to be going well and that both children had strong steady heartbeats. He answered their remaining questions and asked Lorelai to set up another appointment for the following week, before leaving the room.

Lorelai smiled as she got dressed. "Wow, not only did you knock me up, but you did it twice I one shot," she said with an impish grin.

Luke blushed as he recalled in vivid detail the night that their children had been conceived. Lorelai had been so sad, doubting his love for her and his desire to marry her. He'd poured his heart into their lovemaking that night, trying to show her that he still wanted her in every way. He'd kissed her the way she liked to be kissed and touched in all the places that he knew drove her crazy. His determination to prove to her that he still loved her and desired her had completely superseded his aversion to having sex in someone else's house. They'd reconnected on so many levels that night, both oblivious to the fact that in the process they were creating a family.

"Our family is really expanding faster than we planned on."

"We're _so _gonna need a bigger house," she said echoing Luke's earlier thought.

"I was thinking about that myself. I thought maybe we might talk to Tom about doing some more expansion on the house. There's probably enough room on the second floor to add another bedroom and we can convert the attic if we need to, maybe even add on another room downstairs off the kitchen."

"We could also re-evaluate the idea of expanding the kitchen. I saw your eyes light up a little when Tom mentioned it."

"But you said he was scaring you with the kitchen stuff."

"That's because I didn't have the first clue what he was talking about. You do have a clue though, plus I know it's gotta be hard for you to leave your big kitchen in the diner with all your industrial-grade appliances and gadgets and come home and cook in our tiny kitchen. And since we both know that I can't cook to save my life, you should have the kitchen the way _you_ want it." She chewed thoughtfully on her lower lip as another thought struck her. "Of course there is always the option of buying a different house. I know you wanted the Twickham house and it's still for sale. That might be another way to go. That place would be plenty big enough for our family."

He smiled at her willingness to compromise for the sake of their family. "Why don't we talk to Tom and see what he can do before we make any decisions? We've still got a little time to figure things out."

"Ok, As long as we don't wait too long. These kids are going to need a place to sleep, not to mention we have a serious lack of bathrooms for a family of six."

Luke chuckled a little at the thought of all of them sharing one bathroom. "We need to consider that too, although it's going to be a long while before the twins are going to need it."

"I'm thinking more of the girls and me right now. Rory's going to be home for the summer and providing Anna cooperates, April will be visiting and you know how we women need our primping time. It takes some effort to look this beautiful," she said as she finished buttoning her blouse.

Luke slid one arm around her waist and pulled her to him. "You don't _need _it. You're beautiful without all of that." He cupped her face with his other hand and kissed her softly.

She looked into his deep blue eyes and saw the love he felt for her shining in them. He lowered his hand to her stomach and marveled again at the miracle within. He found he couldn't stop touching it knowing that his children were housed there. "You're sweet," Lorelai said. "But things could turn ugly fast with three girls having a cat fight over bathroom time."

He laughed again at the thought of the three of them fighting over the bathroom. "For the sake of my sanity, I hope at least one of these kids is a boy. I'm completely surrounded by women!"

"Not true. You've got Paul Anka."

"Paul Anka doesn't count. He's a dog and an annoying one at that."

Lorelai proceeded argue with him, extolling all of her dog's virtues, while Luke reiterated his anti-dog rant like he had when she' first gotten him. This lively debate continued all the way back to the Dragonfly when Luke pulled the pickup into his usual parking space there. He got and out and walked to the other side of the truck to open Lorelai's door for her."

"Hey, just a thought," Lorelai said changing the subject while they were still out of earshot of anyone else. "The whole town knows I'm pregnant now, but do we tell them about the twin factor or do you think we should hold off for awhile?"

"I was thinking we should tell Rory and April first and I think we should do it together. That way they find out at the same time and neither one of them feels left out. These two babies are going to connect them forever; I think they should hear the news simultaneously."

"I think you're right. Maybe we could all have dinner together this weekend or something and tell them the big news. I'll call Rory and see if she's up for it."

"Ok and I'll talk to April this afternoon when I see her."

"They'd shared one last lingering kiss before Lorelai walked back into the inn and he headed back to the diner, which had led him back to where he was now, standing behind the counter lost in his thoughts. Luke sighed as he reflected on the events of the day so far. One thing was for sure, his life was far from dull. He was broken out of his reverie by his daughter's voice.

"Earth to Dad!" she said impatiently.

Luke faced his daughter and greeted her. "Hey, Kid. Good to see you." He walked around the counter and gave her a quick hug.

"Where'd you zone out to? I've been standing here trying to get your attention for five minutes and so has Mom."

Luke looked a little startled as he noticed Anna standing behind their daughter, especially since their fight this morning at the inn. "What's up, Anna? You didn't have to drop her off. I thought she was going to ride her bile over here after school."

"Well, they're predicting rain," Anna explained, "and I didn't want to risk her getting caught in it on her bike."

"All you had to do was call me and I'd have come to pick her up."

"It's ok, Luke. Besides I wanted to talk to you for a minute if you've got a minute."

"Um…Ok," he said. He walked toward the storage room and signaled for Anna to follow him. When he'd closed the door behind them he asked, "So, what's up? Please tell me you're not here to scream at me again."

"No, no screaming. Just talking. I just wanted to let you know that April and I talked a little more on the drive over here and I explained to her what you'd said about your relationship with Rory and how it doesn't take away from your relationship with her. I think she's starting to understand, but I also think that it would help if she heard it from you, too. I know you're not great with the sharing your feelings thing, but this is something she needs to feel secure."

"I'm hear ya," he said.

"Good," Anna said and turned toward the door, but Luke stopped her.

"Wait, before you go, there's something I want to ask you."

"What is it?"

"Well, as you know, Lorelai and I are making wedding plans and we thought it might be nice if April were included in that. Lorelai thought about making her a bridesmaid or something, but I didn't want to say anything unless I knew it was ok with you first."

"I think that's a nice idea, Luke, but it's not up to me. It's up to April and in case you haven't noticed, she's not really into dressing up."

"I'm not either, but I'm gonna be dressing up for the big day, tux and all. I think my future mother-in-law would have me shot if I dressed like this on the day I marry her daughter."

"Well, ask her about it. If she says yes, I have no problem with it."

"Good," he said as he left the room and went back to his daughter and Anna left the diner to head home. "So, April, how would you feel about taking a trip to the mall?"

"Yes! I love shopping!" She squealed in excitement and hugged him. _Great, _he thought, _another female in my life who loves shopping._

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

After spending a half an hour at Radio Shack and watching April pick up and play with every cell phone they had on display, she finally made a selection. "Dad, can I get this one? It's so cool. It's got a messaging keyboard and a music player and a camera and everything!"

"Whichever one you want," He said, but grimaced a little when he saw the price tag.

"We've got a special going on that one right now," the clerk said. "If you buy the phone, you get the carrying case and the car charger for free."

"For that price, you oughtta throw in a month's free service too," Luke grumbled.

The clerk chuckled, "You're not the first dad who's said that. Now is this on an existing line of service or a new activation."

"It's a new activation," Luke answered, "But on my existing account." Luke provided his account information and as the clerk perused his information, he had a few more things to add.

"Ok, you're going to need to change your plan to a family plan and I suggest adding a messaging plan since you're buying a messaging phone."

"Messaging plan?" He questioned.

"Yeah, kids love to text message and since your daughter picked out a phone with a full keyboard, I'm guessing she's no exception."

April nodded gleefully, "Please, Dad"

"Yeah, I guess," he said. Looking at his daughter's face, how could he say no?

"Now getting the phone at the discounted price requires a new two year contract and a twenty-six dollar activation fee."

"Jeez, what's next? You want my left kidney too?"

The clerk ignored Luke's jibes and went on."Now, do you want to add insurance to the phone for $5.99 a month?"

"What for? The thing has a warranty on it, doesn't it?"

"Well, yes, but the warranty doesn't cover liquid or physical damage or if your daughter loses her phone."

"If that happens, I'll just buy her another one. Skip the insurance. Anything else?"

"How will you be paying for this?"

Luke reached for his wallet and whipped out his MasterCard. "Does this work for you?" He said handing it to the clerk.

When they left the store after completing the activation process, April was excitedly bouncing by his side. "I can't wait to call all my friends and give them my new number! Of course I'll have to charge it first because they never come fully charged out of the box and I'll have to program all of their numbers into the phonebook too! I can't wait to start texting all of them."

"You're really into that texting thing, huh?"

"Yeah. It's cool!"

"I don't get it. Why don't you just call somebody?"

"Because texting is quicker and you can skip all the small talk that comes with calling someone. You can just type what you want to tell the person and be done."

"I still don't get it, but to each their own,"

When they reached the truck in the parking lot and were about to leave the mall April asked. "Hey, can we stop at Taylor's and get some ice cream?"

"Sure, if you want to." Luke realized that at some point he was going to have to start telling April 'no,' instead of giving in to whatever she wanted, but for now, after the tension of the last few days, he just wanted to see her happy.

When they had their orders and were seated at one of Taylor's tables, April took out the owner's manual for her new phone and started tearing through it, while Luke just sat quietly. He had things he wanted to talk to her about, but he wasn't sure where to begin.

"Hey, this is cool! You can take pictures and send them to people on their cell phones too!"

"That is kind of cool," Luke agreed. "Hey, April, can you put that down for a second so we can talk?"

"Judging by the expression on your face, I'm guessing this is going to be a serious talk."

"Yeah, it's kind of important. It's about Rory."

April's face fell,"She doesn't want me around you and her mom, right? It was kind of obvious the other day."

"No, that's not it. I don't want to talk to you about how Rory feels about you. I want to talk to you about how I feel about Rory."

"You love her like a daughter," April stated matter-of-factly. When she noticed the uncertain expression on her father's face, she said. "It's ok, Dad. You can say it. I'm not blind. I noticed the other day when we were all hanging out together. It was pretty much obvious and she loves you like a dad. That was obvious too."

"It's true, April. Rory and I _do _have a father-daughter type relationship, but I want you to know that just because I love Rory like a daughter, that doesn't mean that I don't love you or want you in my life. I still want to be a part of your life and I want to be there for you for whatever you need. But the thing is I also want Rory to be a part of that. I've known her since she was younger than you and she's going to be my step-daughter when Lorelai and I get married."

"She must hate me because I'm taking her dad away from her."

"Hey, stop thinking like that. You're not taking me away from Rory and Rory's not taking me away from you. I want to be a dad to both of you, even though technically I'm not her dad."

"But you're like a dad to her. I met her dad the other day, remember? You're a much better dad than he is."

"I hope so," he said. "I don't ever want to be the kind of dad who's not there enough for his kids. I want to be there for both of you and for the new baby, but I also want all of us to be there for each other. I'm not saying that you and Rory need to act all sisterly when you barely know each other, but you _are _going to be step-sisters soon and you're both gonna be big sisters to the new baby and I'd like for the two of you to at least get to know each other before you start doing the whole jealousy thing."

"Is that what this is for?" she asked indicating her new phone. "A bribe so I won't be jealous that Rory's known you longer if you start spoiling me?"

"No. That is so you can call me whenever you want. And it's a gift because I've never gotten to give you a birthday present your whole life."

"You know I've got a birthday coming up at the end of this month?"

"Yeah?" He felt like a complete ass because he didn't know when his daughter's birthday was.

"The twenty-ninth," she replied.

"I'm sorry I didn't know."

"It's not your fault. I know that you didn't know anything about me. And it's not your fault that you loved Rory first. You were just living your life and I kind of barged in on that. I'm sorry if I messed things up for you."

"You didn't mess anything up for me. You were a surprise to me, that's all, but think about what Roseanne said about surprises to her daughter."

"What's that?"

"A surprise is something you didn't even know you wanted until you got it."

April smiled. "How do you even know that? I don't picture you being much of a TV guy."

Luke laughed, "I'm not, but Lorelai makes me watch a lot TV reruns with her and some of that stuff sticks in my head."

April laughed and Luke smiled. Maybe he wouldn't screw up too much after all.


	20. Chapter 20

That evening Lorelai sat on her couch, phone in hand chatting with her daughter while she listened to the rain outside.

"Man, I can't believe Anna's nerve!" Rory said in astonishment. "Walking into your place of business and calling you a slut, like she has any room to talk!"

"I know! At first she was all 'oh, I'm just a concerned mom,' which I totally get and then when I tried to defend Luke and our life together it turned into a claws-out, hair-pulling, name-calling cat fight."

"There wasn't _really _hair pulling, was there?"

"No. Only figurative hair pulling, although it might have gone that far if Luke hadn't shown up when he did."

"You don't think…"Rory hesitated, not wanting to give her mother something else to worry about.

"What, Kid?"

"It's nothing, Mom."

"Come on, after our talk last night, I thought we agreed not to hold stuff back from each other."

"I was just wondering if maybe Anna still has a thing for Luke. If maybe that's where her attitude is coming from."

"No, I don't think so. They broke up over thirteen years ago. That's a long time to carry a torch for someone and never say anything about it."

"Um, Mom, hello? Look at you and Luke and how long you two had the hots for each other without ever saying anything?"

"That was different. Luke and I saw each other every day and we were really good friends. I think we were both afraid of what might happen to our friendship if we took the plunge and it didn't work out. Not to mention the fact that neither of us has the greatest track record when it comes to relationships."

"So you really don't think Anna's attitude is about her still have feelings for Luke. I mean, they do have a kid together."

"No, I don't think that's it. From the way Luke described his relationship with Anna, I don't know that she ever _did_ have real feelings for him. If she did, I don't think she'd have slept with two other guys while they were still together. Besides, I have a kid with someone else and it's not like I'm sitting around here pining over him, although after our fight today, I have to wonder if Luke's thinking that I still am."

"Yeah, I guess," Rory said noncommittally.

Lorelai noticed the sudden shift in Rory's mood when her father was mentioned. "Still haven't heard from your dad, huh?"

"I don't know why I'm surprised. For years, he's done nothing but make me promises he hasn't kept."

"It's only been two days, Hon. Maybe Luke was right. Maybe your dad just needs time to process this revelation that he doesn't really know his own kid."

"Luke said that to me last night and then he was screaming at you about running off with him today."

"That was just Luke's own insecurity talking. Your father has always been a sore point in our relationship. That had nothing to do with you. Plus, I think Luke's getting nervous about this whole Friday dinner thing. Your grandmother's been so unnaturally supportive lately, I think it's like he's waiting to see what the next bomb she's going to drop on us is. I mean, she hasn't said word one about the fact that I'm pregnant and unmarried again. She's just been acting all excited that she's going to be a grandma again."

"She _has _been acting a little _Stepford _lately. I wonder what's up with that."

"Ooh, maybe it's like _Invasion of the Body Snatchers, _and she's been turned into a pod person."

Rory giggled. "Or _The Faculty. _Has she been drinking ungodly amounts of water lately?"

Lorelai laughed and kept the alien theme going. "Or she's one of those shape-shifters from _The X-Files, _the kind that can only be killed by stabbing them in the back of the neck and she's looking to irradiate everything around her. I wonder where I can get one of those alien shape-shifter neck-stabby things, just in case I need it. Do you think they sell those on eBay?"

"Or here's another thought," Rory said more seriously. "Maybe you should give Grandma the benefit of the doubt. Maybe she's finally realized that you and Luke are in a committed loving relationship and she's trying to be happy for you."

"Spoil my fun!" Lorelai pouted. "I was just getting a good mental image going of stabbing my mother in the neck and watching her turn into a big oozing green puddle."

"Since when do you know so much about alien stuff anyway? Sci-fi's never really been your thing."

"I've been watching a lot more stuff like that since I've been with Luke. He _is _a big geek, you know. And you're right. It's not really my thing, but he loves it."

"Look at you, all growed up, making sacrifices for your relationship."

"Speaking of relationships, how are you doing with this whole Logan break-up thing?"

"It still hurts, but I'm dealing."

"Have you talked to him?"

"No, we spent a great deal of time at the paper today _not _talking. He just kept looking at me from across the room, pointedly not saying anything to anyone. Then when I walked by and he looked like he was about to say something, Paris jumped on him and told him to get his feet off the desk, get off his ass and write something or get the hell out of there."

"Wow! She does still remember that _you're _the editor of the paper now, not her?"

"Yeah, I don't think it was about her trying to take over the paper. She admitted a few days ago that she wasn't good enough with people to run the paper. I think that was more about protecting me."

"Maybe there's hope for Paris as a human being yet." Lorelai and Rory were laughing about Paris when Luke and April walked in the door, both soaked from head to toe.

"Listen, Kid. I should get going. A pair of drowned rats just walked in."

"Very funny," Luke said as he tried to shake some of the water out of his jacket before hanging it up."

'Hey, Mom," Rory said. "I think I might have some clothes in my closet there that April could borrow if she's really that drenched."

"You wouldn't mind?"

"Nah, I'm gonna have to get used to this sharing thing eventually, especially with you having a baby. I might as well start now. Besides I think Anna would probably have you flayed for sending her kid home sick."

"You're probably right about that."

"Hey, while you're at it, if you want to give her my cell number you can. Luke said something last night about getting her one of her own. Since she wants to go to Yale someday, maybe I could give her a few pointers on it. That'd be some place to start anyway."

"You're a great kid, you know that?" Lorelai was touched that Rory was at least trying to put aside her hurt feelings toward April and help her out.

"Yeah, I know," She said with a laugh. "I'm gonna get off of here and get back to studying. Say hi to Luke and April for me."

"I will." Lorelai hung up the phone and looked at Luke and April. "Oh, my God! Look at you two! You're soaked to the bone! We need to get you out of those wet clothes! Come on, April. Rory should have some stuff you can wear, and then we can throw your clothes in the dryer."

"I don't know," April said undecidedly. "I don't want Rory getting mad at me for getting into her stuff."

"It was her suggestion. That was her on the phone. She doesn't want you getting sick. Now, you come with me and, Luke, you'd better go upstairs and change too." Lorelai reached into the hall closet, grabbed a towel and led April into Rory's room while Luke went upstairs.

"Are you sure this is ok with Rory?"

"Positive," Lorelai reassured her as she tossed the towel on the bed and started rummaging through the remnants of Rory's closet. She'd taken most of her things with her to Yale, but she still had a few things left at home. "Now, she's a little bigger than you, but we should be able to find something that will work for you until we can get your clothes dried."

While Lorelai was looking for clothing, April started looking around Rory's room. She walked to the bookshelf and starting skimming the titles. "Wow, she's got a lot of books," April commented.

"That's only a tiny fraction of the books she owns. She's been reading since she was three and she's kind of a pack rat like me. She never throws anything out."

"I'm a big reader too."

"That's what I hear from your dad. He told me once that Caesar dropped a whole tray loaded with plates of food, making a huge racket and you never even looked up from the book you were reading. Rory's like that too. When she's into a book, nothing can distract her from it. You could be running stark naked through the house screaming that aliens have landed and want to suck out her brain and she'd still be in her books." She turned and handed April the jeans and t-shirt she'd picked out. "Here, you'll probably have to roll up the legs on the jeans, since she's taller than you, but at least you'll be dry."

April looked at the tee and laughed when she read it. "'Republicans are creepy'?" she questioned.

"That's my little democrat," Lorelai said with a smile. "I'll leave you alone so you can get dried off and changed. Just bring me your wet clothes when you're done and I'll throw them into the dryer." She left the room and found Luke was already in the kitchen pulling the storage containers from the previous night's thwarted dinner out of the refrigerator.

"That didn't take you very long."

"It doesn't take me very long to get out of my clothes," Luke replied and regretted it almost instantly when he realized how it sounded.

"I know," Lorelai said with a wicked grin.

He grinned back at her. He set the storage containers down, slid his arm around her waist and kissed the top of her head. "Hey, have I said I'm sorry for the way I yelled at you today?"

"No, but you don't need to. I know you still have issues where Christopher is concerned, but I also know that you're trying to overcome it and that means a lot."

He clasped her tight for a moment then went back to the food. "While we're on the subject of exes, I had another talk with Anna when she dropped April off."

Lorelai stiffened a little at the mention of Anna's name."And?" She probed.

"It seems like things may get a little better there. She had a talk with April about the whole step-sibling jealousy thing, then she called later in the day to tell me she was going to pick April up here, so I didn't have to leave you here by yourself while I take April home. She actually even said that she's ok with her being a part of our wedding if she wants to be."

"Did you ask April how she felt about it?"

"No, I figured the whole bridesmaid thing is more your territory. I was thinking maybe you could ask her about it. That way she'll know you really want her to be involved in everything."

"Ok, I'll ask her about it. Of course, I'll probably get harangued by my mother about it. She seemed a little standoffish around April the other day."

"Isn't she like that with everyone? By the way, what was she doing in Stars Hollow again today? You two didn't have plans this afternoon, did you?"

"No. I didn't even know she was in town. Where did you see her?"

"I saw her when April and I were coming back from the mall. She was walking around with Kirk who was wearing this butt-ugly maroon jacket."

"Oh crap! That's scary on a level I never knew existed."

"Your mother hanging with Kirk? I'll agree that's pretty out there."

"That's not what I mean. I mean the maroon jacket. That's his realtor's jacket."

"Kirk's a realtor now? When did this happen and where have I been?"

"Well, technically, he's still a trainee realtor, but that's not the scary part. The truly frightening part is that my mother is hanging with a realtor in Stars Hollow! I told you something was up the other day when my parents' Jag was parked in front of the realtor's office, but you were all like 'there's no parking in the square' and 'they've got the big house in Hartford'."

"I believe 'mausoleum' was the word I used."

"Totally missing the point! The point is that _this_ is the reason my mother has been eerily nice lately. I _knew _she was up to something. They want to move here to be closer to us when the baby gets here!"

"Or maybe they're worrying about our housing situation and they're checking out local property values. With them knowing about you being pregnant, they have to know that we're going to need a bigger place. They did mention that property values had skyrocketed in Stars Hollow the last time we had dinner with them."

"Maybe," she said, but still wasn't convinced.

April entered the kitchen from Rory's room, wet clothes in hand and asked Lorelai. "What should I do with these?"

"I'll take them," Lorelai said, grabbed them from April and walked out to the dryer.

Luke turned to greet his daughter and burst out laughing when he took in her appearance. She had the jean rolled up at least twice and the t-shirt she was wearing hung almost down to her knees. She had the towel Lorelai had given her slung around her neck to keep her long hair from dripping on Rory's clothes.

"Hey, it's not funny!" She protested as she tried to towel-dry her hair. "At least I've got dry clothes on now."

Lorelai walked back into the room after starting the dryer as Luke still chuckled in amusement at his daughter's outfit. "What's so funny?" she asked. Luke gestured to April who was still trying to sop up some of the water from her thick disheveled hair. "I think she looks cute in Rory's clothes. It's like playing dress up! You know, like when little girls try to wear Mommy's heels?"

"Thanks, Lorelai," April said with a reproachful look toward her father.

"Hey, Kiddo, I've got a hair dryer in the bathroom if you want to use it."

"That'd be great. That'll help a lot more than the towel. Which way's the bathroom?"

"It's upstairs, right off our bedroom."

"You don't mind me being in your bedroom?"

"Not at all," Lorelai answered without hesitation. This is your dad's home and I want you to feel free to go anywhere you want in it."

"Ok," she said she said with a smile as she made a beeline for the stairs.

After dinner the three of them sat on the couch, discussing _When Harry Met Sally_. Lorelai had suggested a movie and that was the one April picked. They had just finished watching it and Luke was his usual self, launching into a diatribe about how far-fetched it was that they ended up together in the end, since they were so annoyed by each other in the beginning.

"But they learned to tolerate each other's differences and became friends," April argued. "Isn't that what relationships are supposed to be based on, understanding that different people have different opinions?"

"Yeah," Lorelai agreed. "Take us, for example, we annoyed each other at first, but then we became friends and look how far we've come," she added as she affectionately stroked his stubbly face.

"Stop it," Luke hissed in her ear and whispered, "Not in front of April."

"I can hear you, Dad," April said. "You don't have to worry about me getting grossed out by you two being affectionate in front of me, as long as you're not too mushy about it. I _do _understand that the two of you have a sexual relationship."

Luke looked at his daughter in horror. "Aren't you too young to be talking about stuff like that?"

"I'm just stating a fact. I know about this stuff. I took a Sex Ed class last semester. The fact that Lorelai is pregnant indicates that you guys have had sex at least once."

"What the hell were you doing taking a Sex Ed class and why the hell are they teaching you that stuff to you so young? Does your mother know about this?"

"Yes, Mom knows about it. She had to sign a parental consent form for it or they would have put me in a regular health class. And the reason they teach it so young is because there are girls my age getting pregnant right and left."

"That better _never_ happen to you. I'll murder any boy who even thinks about looking at you wrong! You didn't take that class because you're thinking about _having _sex, did you? You're much too young to be thinking about that."

"Breathe, Dad. I didn't take the class because I'm thinking about doing, you know, _it _anytime soon. I was interested in it for purely scientific reasons. Besides it turned out to be a good thing. All the talk about chromosomes and DNA was what got me thinking about how babies are made and where I come from. That's what started me on this whole 'who's my daddy' quest. If I hadn't taken that class, we wouldn't be sitting here having this conversation."

"Oh," Luke said, relaxing a little. Before he could say anything else they were interrupted by the doorbell ringing. "That's probably your mom." He said as he got up to answer the door and let Anna in.

"Are you ready to go, Hon?" Anna asked her daughter.

"Yeah, just let me get my stuff together," April replied as she picked up her backpack and her Radio Shack bag. "Mom, look at the cool phone Dad got me! It's completely cool! It even came with a purple carrying case. I was hoping to find a purple phone, but they didn't have one, so when they let me pick out the case, I had to have the purple one!"

It was then that Anna noticed April's change in clothes. "What's with the outfit?" she asked, chuckling a little when she read the tee that April was wearing."

"Oh, that's my fault," Lorelai jumped in. "I was on the phone with Rory when these two cam home absolutely sopping and since April didn't have a change of clothes here, Rory suggested that she borrow something of hers. I hope you don't mind."

"No, I'd rather have that than have her sitting around for hours in wet clothes."

"That's what I thought too." She was glad that Anna wasn't upset by it and grateful for Rory's generosity. "That reminds me, your clothes should've been dry awhile ago. Just let me go get them for you, so you can change."

Anna answered before April had a chance to, "That's ok, Lorelai. It's not a bad idea for April to have a few things here in case something like this ever happens again. She can just return Rory's things on Friday when she visits again, unless Rory needs them before then."

"No, we probably won't even see Rory again until Friday."

"Speaking of Friday," Luke said a little awkwardly. "Is there any way that we can rearrange that?"

"You don't want to see me on Friday?" April asked a little bewildered.

"Yes, I definitely want to see you as much as I can. It's just that we kind of have this standing dinner thing with Lorelai's parents on Fridays," resigning himself to the fact that by marrying into the Gilmore clan he was committing himself to torturous Friday nights in Harford.

"You can't take her with you?"Anna inquired. "They already met April on Sunday, didn't they?"

"Yeah, they did. I just didn't think you'd want us taking April up to Hartford with us, since you haven't met the Gilmores yet and I know how you feel about April hanging out with people you don't know."

"She'll be with you and Lorelai and I trust that you'll make sure no harm comes to her. Besides, it's just a dinner. What could be so bad about that?"

Luke and Lorelai looked at each other both thinking that if she _did _know the Gilmores, she wouldn't ask that. "Nothing, I guess," Luke said not wanting to launch into another rant about how much he hated dinner at his future in-laws house.

"Good, then I see no reason to change our Friday arrangement. In fact, since she doesn't have school the next day I don't see a problem if you want to keep her a little later than usual."

"Ok, good," Luke said, breathing a sigh of relief that things were starting to work in his favor where his daughter was concerned.

"I'll call you later this week to work out the details, but for right now, since April _does _have school tomorrow, I need to get her home."

"Ok," he said. After they'd said their goodbyes, he sat back down on the couch with Lorelai.

"So," Lorelai said. "Another crazy day. "

"Yeah," he agreed. "You think there's a Guinness record for how many crazy days in a row a couple can have?"

"Probably not," Lorelai answered with a laugh. "But if there were, boy, would we be contenders." They laughed together for a moment before Lorelai added. "April sure loves that cell phone you bought her. I'm guessing purple is her favorite color?"

"Yeah," he said. "Something I didn't know until today." He sat quietly staring at his fiancée for a few minutes lost in thought before she became a little unnerved by it.

"What?" she said, flustered by his intense gaze.

"Talking about the color purple got me thinking back to the night we got engaged and the purple sweater you were wearing."

"I'm surprised you remember that sweater."

"I remember every detail of that night."

"I remember you taking it off of me," she said with a mischievous glint in her eyes.

"Me too," he said in a low husky voice as he moved closer to her and captured her lips with his own. She reached for him, pulling him closer and deepening the kiss. They pulled apart when oxygen became a necessity, both breathless.

"I'm guessing that would fall into April's 'too mushy' category," Lorelai said as they laughed again with their arms still around each other and Lorelai thought about their movie debate. "I still can't believe you don't think Harry and Sally have stuff in common with us."

"Maybe they do," He conceded. "But with one big difference between me and Harry," he said as he pulled Lorelai into his lap so that she was straddling him.

"And what's that?" she asked as she wrapped her arms around his neck and leaned her forehead against his.

"I never once, even during that miserable month that we were apart, ever regretted making love to you."

Lorelai looked into his eyes and saw the depth of his desire for her and kissed him feverishly. When she released his lips, she looked at him with the same desire in her eyes and said, "Make love to me again, Luke."


	21. Chapter 21

The next two and a half days passed in a flurry of activity for Luke and Lorelai. Luke talked to Tom about possibly doing more expanding on the house, but he said he wouldn't be able to get over to the house to really start looking at things until the following week, when Luke would be out of town with April, so they set a meeting up for the week after that. Lorelai and Sookie spent what felt like countless hours going over menu options for the wedding while Michel muttered snide comments about how their time could be better spent while they were at work. Both of his bosses reminded him that since they owned the place, they could spend their time however they wanted it as long as it wasn't interfering with the business. Luke and Lorelai consulted Reverend Skinner about performing their ceremony, who agreed, but with the stipulation that they undergo pre-marriage counseling with him once a week before the big day. They'd done their luggage shopping on Wednesday afternoon with Luke grumbling the whole time about the experience and how much stuff cost. They'd also stopped by the travel agency where Lorelai has snagged one of each of the brochures that they had so they could start making honeymoon plans, sparking a rant from Luke about how overpriced hotel rooms were, which delighted Lorelai to no end. Lorelai had made a call to her mother to inform her that there would be one more for dinner on Friday. Richard called Luke and set up their man-date to go to the batting cages while Emily was frequently seen in the company of Kirk or other employees of Stars Hollow Real Estate, leaving Lorelai scratching her head and wondering what her mother was up to, still convinced that she was trying to move to town to be closer to her family. Rory and April called their respective parents frequently during this time to keep them updated on the goings-on in their lives. They'd set up a plan to all have dinner together on Sunday night, the last night before April and Luke had to leave and Lorelai planned a shopping date with Rory for Saturday to keep her occupied while Luke was hanging with her dad and to give them some much needed mother-daughter time. She then planned a separate shopping date with April for Sunday to get her bridesmaid's dress, since the younger girl had been delighted to be asked to be a part of her father's wedding. Luke went back to New Haven on Thursday afternoon, trusty toolbox in hand to start fixing things up around the apartment as he'd promised. Before they knew it, it was Friday evening and they were getting ready for the dinner they'd been dreading all week.

Luke sat on his side of their bed, while waiting for Lorelai and April to finish primping and grumbled, "Can't we skip this? Dinner with your parents it like an experiment in terror."

"And how do you suggest we get out of it without experiencing a terror even worse," Lorelai called from the bathroom.

"I don't know. Tell them you've been having bad bouts with morning sickness all day and you're not feeling up to it."

Lorelai walked out of the bathroom and gaped at him with a look of mock horror on her face."You mean, _lie_ to my parents, your-future in-laws, just to get out of having dinner with them?"

"Uh-huh," he said with a grin, trying to urge her to give in. "It wouldn't really be lying. You have been sick today."  
"Yes, but I'm feeling fine now, so it _would_ be a lie and my mother has a finely-tuned lie detector built into her brain."

"You two are something else, the way you bicker," April said as she came out of the bathroom. She was wearing a simple skirt and blouse that she'd brought with her to change into after leaving school since having been informed by her father earlier in the week that casual dress was not allowed at the elder Gilmore house. She'd only worn the outfit once before when she'd had to go to a swim team awards banquet and since then it had been relegated to the back of her closet. She had her hair down which was unusual for her and Lorelai had lent her some jewelry to accessorize her outfit with.

"This is not bickering, this is what we call a lively debate," Lorelai clarified. "Now, come on, you," she said grabbing Luke's hand and attempting to pull him off of their bed. "You know my parents are intolerant if we're late."

"Fine," he said with a scowl as the three of them headed down the stairs and out the door.

When they arrived at the manor, they were ushered into the living room, by yet another nameless maid, where Richard, Emily and Rory were already seated. Richard and Rory were having an animated debate about the political and philosophical undertones of _Atlas Shrugged _by Ayn Rand.

"There is absolutely nothing wrong with sacrificing the good of the one for the good of the many," Richard said. "Suppose a man walks into Times Square on New Year's Eve strapped head to toe with explosives while a throng of party goers are there just to watch to ball drop. Wouldn't you say that merits sacrificing that man's life to save the other lives?"

"Yes, but in a case like what's depicted in the book, there _is _something wrong with sacrificing the good of the one for the good of the many," Rory argued with her grandfather.

"Then perhaps you disagree with Robin Hood, robbing from the rich to give to the poor," he countered.

"That is a completely different situation, Grandpa. The poor in Robin Hood were starving because of corrupt politicians not unlike the ones Ayn Rand wrote about."

"The politicians in _Atlas Shrugged_ were not corrupt. They were simply trying to create boundaries and limitations."

"You can't put boundaries and limitations on the human mind!"

Emily who'd been watching this discussion with interest interrupted, "Perhaps you could agree to disagree or pick this up at another time," she said when Luke, Lorelai and April walked in. "I'm sure that our new arrivals don't want to join in on this particular discussion," she added with a pointed look directed at Luke, who shifted uncomfortably.

"Actually, I'm kind of with Rory on this one," April said a little hesitantly, not quite sure where she stood with Lorelai's parents.

"You can't be serious!" Richard said to her.

"Richard, why don't you get them some drinks, and you three sit down instead of hovering in the doorway." Richard rose and walked to the bar while Luke and Lorelai sat on the empty love seat together and April sat down.

Rory turned to April and said, "You've read _Atlas Shrugged,_" she questioned her future step-sister.

April nodded, "Last year. I loved the idea that all the creative minds of the world got together to form their own new society when they got fed up with the one they were living in."

Richard shook his head as he heard this, "So you're saying that they were right not to care that the society they left behind started crumbling because of their abandonment of it?"

"Richard, the drinks," Emily reminded.

"Oh, right," he said realizing that he'd momentarily why he left his seat."Your usual, Luke?"

"That'd be fine, Richard," Luke replied.

"Club soda with lime for me, Dad," Lorelai added.

"April," Richard said, "Would you like a coke?"

"Yes, please," she said.

Richard handed each of them their drinks, resumed his seat in the empty chair next to Emily's and turned to April. "So, go on, I'd love to hear what you have to say defending letting an entire society fall apart over selfish motivations."

April shifted a little awkwardly in her seat while Rory jumped on her grandfather's comment. "What about the selfish motivation of the government that drove them to it?"

"The government's motivations were not selfish; they were for the greater good. What was wrong with them wanting to use the talent and creativity of the greater minds to better mankind?"

"That is such a crock!" April said. "They weren't about 'bettering mankind,' especially in the case of Hank Reardon. They discovered his innovation and wanted to exploit it for themselves."

"Thank you," Rory said.

"And furthermore, I never said they were right to let society crumble, but maybe they were justified in doing so. The society that they left behind sure didn't care about them when their businesses were crumbling because of the unfair mandates imposed on them."

"Those 'mandates' as you call them," Richard argued, "were put in place to protect society as a whole so that everyone could have an equal chance to use their collective resources."

"But they weren't 'collective' resources. They were the property o the individuals who created them to do with as they saw fit. But because the people who weren't as creative or smart started crying about how little they had, the government stepped in to give everybody a piece of the pie that somebody else baked!"

Richard laughed at April's way of expressing herself. "Well, Rory I can see you found yourself an ally in your future step-sister, though I don't agree with either one of you. "

Emily laughed at Richard being outnumbered. "Richard. Let it go."

"I will not let it go. Not until these two very opinionated young ladies admit that I'm right."

"Keep dreaming," Rory said. "It's not gonna happen."

Emily spoke up again, "That book has been debated for countless hours in the nearly fifty years since it was written and no one has ever come to complete agreement on it."

"You've never even read it, Emily."

"No, but I have heard you debate it at many a cocktail party over the years and you always say the same things. You never have a new point to add."

This debate continued until the maid announced it was time for dinner. They all walked into the dining room as Richard commented to Luke "That's one bright girl you've got there, Luke."

"Thank you, Richard. She is a pretty smart kid," he replied as they gathered around the dining room table, Richard and Emily taking their usual positions at each end, while Luke and Lorelai sat on one side and Rory and April on the other.

"True, though her political views leave a little something to be desired."

"Hey, the First Amendment guarantees me the right to say whatever is on my mind," April retorted as the maid started bringing in their salads.

"I just had a horrible thought," Lorelai said, "What it Rory got all her brains from Christopher and April got hers from Anna and our kids turn out to be complete dunces?"

Luke laughed and said, "I don't see that happening, but if it does, we'll hire tutors."

"Kids?" Emily questioned. "Are the two of you planning on having more children after this one?" She was still searching for the perfect house for them, but to find it, she needed to know more about what their future needs would be.

_Oops,_ Lorelai thought. "Oh, look the salad's here," she said, diving into her salad to avoid her mother's question since they hadn't yet told anyone about the twins.

Emily turned to Luke and probed further. "Luke, since my daughter's avoiding the question, perhaps you'd be willing to give me a straight answer." She'd wanted to ask him many questions the other day, but didn't feel comfortable doing so while standing in his restaurant. Here in her own home, she felt much more in control.

Luke shifted in his seat a little, and tried to think of the best way to answer, since he and Lorelai had agreed to tell Rory and April about the twins first and they wouldn't be able to do that until Sunday. "Um, well, it is something that we've talked about," he finally said which was the truth, but conveniently left out the fact that they were having more than one child now."

"So, are you saying that you intend to keep my daughter barefoot and pregnant?"

"Mom," Lorelai protested. "Why do you have to phrase it like that? Like the fact that I'm pregnant is all Luke's doing. If Luke and _I_ decide we want more children, that's up to _us_. Right now we're just trying to get our wedding plans in order and see _this _pregnancy through to the end."

"Which will be when?"

"Mom, you already know when the wedding is. You've known for months. You helped with the invitations and the guest list, remember?"

"Of course I remember. I'm not senile, for God's sake! I wasn't talking about the wedding. I was talking about the baby? When is the baby due?"

"Oh, November 11th," Lorelai answered.

"November 11th," Richard questioned. "That soon?"

"Yes, Dad, that soon. We went to the doctor on Tuesday and that's what he said. We're about nine weeks into in now."

"Nine weeks?" Emily said and started doing some mental calculations. "That would mean you conceived right around…"

"Valentine's Day weekend, if you must know, Mom."

"Oh my God! "She exclaimed. "That was the weekend you spent at the Huntzberger's place in Martha's Vineyard, wasn't it?"

"Yes, Mom, it was."

"You had sex in someone else's house?"

"Oh, Lord here we go," Lorelai groaned as Luke started fidgeting nervously.

"Emily," Richard broke in. "The when and where of the conception of our grandchild is not really any of our concern."

"But, Richard-"Emily began again, but her husband cut her off.

"I mean it, Emily. Luke and Lorelai are both consenting adults and when and where they choose to have sex is none of our business."

"Can we please curb the sex talk in front of the girls?" Luke requested.

"Yes, please," Rory chimed in. "I really have no desire to know what they were doing in Logan's parents' house."

"I'm right there with you, "April said.

"Speaking of Logan," Richard said, trying to change the subject. "How is young Mr. Huntzberger?"

_Uh-oh, _Lorelai thought to herself feeling nothing but pity for her daughter knowing that she hadn't yet told her grandparents about the break-up.

Rory hesitated, "Um, the truth is, I really don't know how Logan is, Grandpa. We broke up."

"When did this happen?" her grandfather asked.

"Monday, after I went back to school."

"What?" Emily queried. "Why? You two were so perfect for each other," She turned on Lorelai. "This is your doing, isn't it, Lorelai. One weekend with you and Rory's throwing away a perfectly good relationship. I knew you'd do something like this. You've always hated the Huntzbergers!"

Luke jumped in to defend his fiancée. "Hey, back off! Lorelai didn't make Rory break up with Logan. She did that on her own and I, for one, think she made the right decision!"

"I suppose that _you'd _prefer to see her dating that unruly nephew of yours again!"

"No! Why would I want that? He broke her heart too! I'm just saying that her relationship with Logan was nowhere near the perfect relationship you thought it was. That stuck-up little bastard cheated on her, with not one, but several of his sister's friends! And as far as Lorelai hating the Huntzbergers, I think she has a right to after what they did to Rory! Weren't they the ones partially responsible for her stealing a yacht and dropping out of Yale and nearly throwing her life away?"

"You're right, Luke. They were," Emily said recalling her cat fight with Shira Huntzberger." I'm sorry, Lorelai. I was just so stunned to hear that Rory broke up with Logan, I wasn't even thinking." She turned to her granddaughter. "Was this what you were talking about the other night regarding the bridesmaids?"

Rory nodded and launched into the whole story, starting with how she'd snuck Jess into her room when he'd shown up at the Gilmores and they talked and how Logan had come home from his trip early acting like a total jerk over her hanging with Jess and ending with their final confrontation the past Monday when she'd moved out of his apartment."The funny thing is, Jess bailed on me in high school, but when I needed a friend the most he was there. He was the one who finally made me realize that I was wasting my life and that I needed to go back to school."

"Ooh," Lorelai said. "Something just hit me. When Luke and I get married you and Jess will be like cousins and you used to date him." Lorelai laughed and then added, "That makes you two kissing cousins, just like Grandma Lorelai and Grandpa Charles."

"Ewww! Ok, first of all, Jess and I dated way before you and Luke were even thinking about dating each other and second of all, even if we were still stating it wouldn't be the same thing as Gran because we're not related by blood."

"Still seems a little creepy to me."

Emily interrupted,"So you were saying that Jess was the one who talked you into going back to school?"

"Yeah, he basically told me that I wasn't being me and I realized then that I'd been running scared because I was afraid of failing and I decided to do something about it."

"It sounds like he's grown up a lot," Emily commented.

"I think a lot of that has to do with Luke's influence."

"Please," Luke protested. "It had nothing to do with me. That kid lived with me for two years and never listened to a damn thing I said the whole time I was his guardian."

"But Luke, the point is you tried. You were the strong male role model that he needed in a time when he needed it the most. Now, look what he's doing? He's published a short novel. Plus the fact that he's got his own business seems like he's following in Uncle Luke's footsteps if you ask me." Rory beamed as Luke blushed.

April could tell her dad was getting a little embarrassed, "So this is my cousin, right? Aunt Liz's son?"

"Yeah," Luke replied. "You'll get to meet him next week when we go on our trip."

"What trip?" Richard asked.

"It's a school thing, "April answered. "My math team made it into the nationals in Philadelphia. Dad's going along as a chaperone."

"Why didn't we know about this?" Richard asked, looking at Luke curiously.

"I figured Lorelai would've told you about it."

"Lorelai, why _didn't _you tell us about it?"

"I don't know, "Lorelai said. "I just didn't think that was something you guys would care about."

"Of course we care about it. April's going to be a part of our family when you two get married and we'd like to get to know her and part of that is knowing about things like this."

"I'm sorry, Dad. I guess I just thought that with April not being related to you by blood, you wouldn't have an interest."

Richard frowned at his daughter, and then turned his attention back to Luke. "So, tell me about this trip. How long will you be gone?"

"Ten days," Luke said. "We leave Monday morning and get back the following Thursday evening."

"Ten days is a long time to spend away from home. What about the diner?"

"Caesar's got it covered. He's a little nervous about it, but I'm sure he can handle it. He's worked for me a long time and he knows the place almost as well as I do. He knows all the regulars and who the picky eaters are. He'll be fine."

"Hmmm," Richard said thoughtfully not sure he should say what was really on his mind.

Emily picked up on the shift in Richard's mood, "Richard, what is it?"

"Nothing, Emily. I'm fine."

"Are you sure you're ok?" Luke asked . "You got quiet all of a sudden."

"Well, Luke, to be honest I'm a little surprised by this given our talk the other day. I thought you understood the things I was trying to tell you, but apparently I was wrong."

"What things were those?" Lorelai asked overflowing with curiosity. She'd been pestering Luke about what he'd talked with her dad about, but he wouldn't budge.

""Give it up, Lorelai," Luke said to her.

Lorelai pouted a little when her mother spoke up, "Don't feel bad, Lorelai. Your father won't tell me what they talked about in their private little pow-wow either."

"Richard, I _did _understand what you were trying to tell me and I've been doing my best to live up to your expectations. I don't get where this is coming from."

"I just think that ten days is a long time for you to go running off and leaving my pregnant daughter all alone. Your role in your unborn child's life isn't over just because you've already done you part! Lorelai's going to need all the help she can get from you in the next few months, and this is not a good time for you to be abandoning your responsibility to her."

"Richard Gilmore, you filthy hypocrite!" Emily shouted across the table at him. "You were gone constantly when I was pregnant with Lorelai. You don't know how many times I woke up in the middle of the night sick as a dog, wishing you were there to hold my hand." As she said this, the maid began bringing in dinner plates and clearing their salad plates.

"That was a different situation, Emily. I had no choice but to leave as a part of my job, but this trip he's taking is a completely different matter. This is frivolous!"

"Dad," Lorelai broke in. "Luke is not abandoning me and the trip is not frivolous! He's just going on a field trip with his kid to support her achievement, something that I encouraged and that they've both been looking forward to for a week now. They need this time together as father and daughter."

"And what about the child you're carrying? You don't think this child needs its father too?"

"Yes, Dad, I agree with that, but it's only a week and a half. He's not gonna miss out on that much in that short a time. Besides he's already promised he's going to call me every night, which is ore than Christopher ever did when I was carrying Rory! I was alone through most of my pregnancy with her."

"I'm aware if that, Lorelai. It's no secret that that man has never taken any responsibility for his child whatsoever. I thought Luke was better than that!"

"He is, Dad! I wish you could see that!" As the maid set her plate in front of her, she was overcome with a wave of nausea from the strong smell of the salmon wafting up from it. She made a beeline for the bathroom.

"Lorelai!" Luke called as he jumped out of his seat and went after her.

Rory looked at her grandfather in shock. "Grandpa, you seriously need to get off Luke's back. He's always taken good care of me and Mom and long before they were a couple! Just this week, he drove up to New Haven to comfort me after the break-up with Logan and he came back again to fix things around my apartment so I'd be safe! And he's doing the best he can to be a good father to April even though he's missed out on most of her life!"

"It's true," April agreed. "Things were a little weird at first with me and him, but he's really trying to get to know me and be there for me, even though my mother's been freaking out about it. But he's been standing his ground and not letting her call all the shots. As for the trip, _I _asked _him _to go, he didn't volunteer for it. I wanted him to go with me, so that he could see another facet of my life. I've never had a father to be supportive before and I like that he's really making an effort. He didn't have to. My mom made it very clear that she didn't need anything from him, but she didn't stop to consider the fact that _I _did. I needed my father!"

"Wow," Rory said. "You've pretty much got your dad's ranting thing down pat." The girls looked at each other and laughed. They'd been texting each other since Lorelai had given April Rory's cell number and exchanged stories about the dad they both loved. Rory had told April about the apartment rant and in turn April had told her about his sex rant. April had thanked her for the loan of her clothing and they'd also chatted about their respective parents' upcoming wedding and the idea of the two of them sharing bridesmaidly duties. They were still getting to know each other, but the tension between them had eased quite a bit.

"That must have been awful for you growing up never knowing who your father was," Emily stated. She hadn't really thought about that part of the equation, how a young girl might feel, not knowing where she comes from. She'd thought primarily about how the new knowledge would affect Luke and Lorelai. And of course, she had often speculated about the child's mother, whom she still hadn't met and how any woman could purposely keep a child from knowing her father.

April nodded. "From the time I was eight, I've been asking my mom about my father and she always just blew me off, saying that I was better off without him like he was some kind of deadbeat or pedophile or something. Then when I'd push her on the subject, she'd just act all hurt, like she didn't think she was being a good enough mom or something. So, I finally started doing some investigating of my own. When my mom was busy at the store, I started searching through her old diaries and letters and stuff, trying to find a clue to who my dad was."

"You did this without your mother knowing about it?" Richard inquired.

"Yes, I was afraid if she knew what I was doing, she'd try to talk me out of it and I _had _to know who my father was. Even when it was done, I didn't completely tell her the truth. I told her I did it just for the science fair, but the truth was I didn't care as much about the fair as I did just having an answer. I wasn't getting my hopes up that my father would want to be a part of my life. It was enough for me just to know, but when he started calling me and asking me to spend time with him, that was amazing to me. I finally found the piece of me that was missing."

"I should go apologize to Luke for overreacting," He said getting up from the table. He walked to the open door of the bathroom and peered inside, seeing Lorelai sitting on the floor in Luke's arms who was rubbing her back. Neither noticed him standing there.

"You think you got it all out?" Luke asked her.

"Yeah, I think so. That fishy smell just hit me all at once and the kids didn't like it one bit."

"I feel like an ass!" he said as he stroked her hair and kissed her forehead.

"Why? You've been nothing but supportive through this. You sit with me when I'm sick and hold my hair out of my face, and rub my back and try to comfort me through all of it. You've been great. "

"But it's my fault that you're this sick. _I _did this to you."

"Hey, don't say that. We did this together, remember? That night in Martha's Vineyard after we had that talk about our wedding?"

"I remember," He said softly blushing slightly.

"I want you to also remember this is something we _both _wanted. We talked about having kids together the night we got engaged and now we _are_ having kids together, a little sooner than we planned on, and the twin thing was completely unexpected. I was still trying to cope with the idea of having just one baby, but I wouldn't change it. Forget about what my father said. You're an incredible dad and I can't imagine anyone else being the father of my children."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah," she confirmed as she grabbed his hand and laid it on her stomach. "These kids are incredibly lucky to have you as a dad."

Luke smiled. "You think you're ready to get up, now? You're parents are probably wondering what happened to us by now."

"Yeah, I think the nausea has passed."

"Good," He said as he helped her up off the bathroom floor and they walked toward the door and both jumped back upon finding Richard standing there.

"Jeez, Dad! Make a noise or something!"

"I'm sorry," Richard said. "I didn't mean to startle you."

"How long have been standing there?"

"A minute or two," He admitted, then addressed his future son-in-law. "Luke, might I have a word with you?"

"Dad, don't," Lorelai pleaded, gripping Luke's hand tightly, worried about what her father might say to Luke after his outburst at the dinner table.

"I came to make peace, Lorelai. Would you excuse us, please?"

She looked at Luke who merely shrugged. "I guess," she said and made her way back to the dining room.

Luke stood there stiffly, not knowing what to say. He'd thought after their talk on Sunday that Richard was beginning to accept him as a prospective son-in-law, but now he had his doubts.

"Luke, "Richard began,"I'm afraid I owe you an apology."

"That's not really necessary. You're Lorelai's father and you have a right to be concerned about her. Having April suddenly appear in my life has taught me a few things about that myself."

"I still want to say I'm sorry. My little temper tantrum out there really has nothing to do with you. I have to admit though, that when Emily first informed me of Lorelai's pregnancy the other night, I wanted to rip you apart with my bare hands for getting my daughter pregnant."

"Jeez," Luke said nervously, backing away from Richard slightly.

"Relax, Luke. The urge passed when Emily very bluntly brought it to my attention that it wasn't you I was angry with. Finding out that Lorelai was once again pregnant out of wedlock brought back all the pain and anger I felt when she was sixteen and how Christopher pretty much abandoned her."

"I thought he was the one who wanted to get married back then," Luke said remembering his argument with Lorelai about the subject.

"He was, but not because he really wanted to. He only proposed to Lorelai because of the pressure he felt from his parents and from Emily and me to do the right thing. When Lorelai turned him down, he pretty much stayed away until Lorelai went into labor. The night Rory was born, Emily and I pushed him into trying again, hoping that Lorelai would've changed her mind now that she was a mother. We were wrong, though. She turned him down once again and then he disappeared and went off to live his own life, doing God knows what. I was so angry with him for deserting my daughter and granddaughter. Even thought Lorelai adamantly refused to marry him, he still should have been there for her and for his child."

"I couldn't agree more," Luke said. "Ever since I found out about April, I've been feeling like a deserter myself because I was never there for her when she was little. It still bothers me that Anna never had any intention of telling me I had a kid. If April hadn't come looking for me, I still wouldn't know she existed."

"What would you have done if you'd known then? Would you have married the woman?"

"I honestly don't know. I was never given the chance to find out. Looking back on everything, I don't think I would have because the issues that broke up our relationship wouldn't have been resolved by getting married out of some sense of obligation. I can tell you one thing for sure; I'd have made damn sure I was there for April for whatever she needed regardless of whether or not her mother and I were together."

"It seems that you're doing that now the best way you can."

"I'm trying, but I have to admit, I'm still a little clueless when it comes to being a dad to an almost teenage daughter."

"Just wait until she starts dating."

"That better not be happening for a long time," Luke said with a smile as he reflected on his very candid discussion with April on the subject of sex.

Richard laughed and said, "Trust me. It will happen sooner than you're ready for it. One day you're going to realize that your little girl isn't a little girl anymore, but a young woman. While we're on the subject of children, did I hear correctly that you and Lorelai are expecting twins?"

"Yeah, about that, could you keep that to yourself for a little while? We just found out Tuesday and we haven't told the girls yet. We wanted to wait and tell them when the four of us could all sit down together and talk about it."

Richard nodded. "I'll keep my mouth shut, though it may put me in the doghouse with Emily if she finds out that I knew before her." He chuckled for a moment before saying, "Come on; let's go rejoin the ladies before they start thinking that we killed each other."

The men returned to the dining room and reclaimed their seats to find the women chatting casually about wedding plans.

"Lorelai's going to take me dress shopping Sunday," April was saying. "Rory's already got her dress. It's this really cool shade of pink. Lorelai showed it to me the other day. Now we're gonna get one for me that matches it."

"That sounds lovely," Emily said. "What shade of pink? Maybe my Chanel suit would be a close enough match that I could wear it to the wedding."

"That suit would be perfect, Mom," Lorelai said. "You look nice in it. You should definitely wear it on our wedding day."

"Good. That's settled. What about your father?"

"What about him?"

"Well, what should he wear?"

Lorelai looked at her mother in confusion. "Mom, you're way more informed about this stuff than I am. Doesn't the father of the bride traditionally wear a tux to match the rest of the wedding party? I mean, if he's going to be walking me down the aisle, he should be coordinated with everyone else."

"You want me to walk you down the aisle?" Richard asked with a smile.

"Of course, Dad. You're my father. Why wouldn't I want you to give me away on my wedding day?"

"Well, you never asked me to, so I didn't know what to think."

"Gee, Dad, I didn't think I _had _to ask. I thought that was just a given. When your daughter gets married, you walk her down the aisle and give her away, but if you don't want to do it, you don't have to. I can go solo." She was a little hurt, thinking that she needed to ask her own father for his support on her wedding day.

"No, I want to, Lorelai. I just didn't think you wanted me to. You've never been one for following tradition much."

"You don't have you want to do it, if you really don't," she said stiffly. "I know you and mom aren't exactly thrilled with my choice in husbands."

"Lorelai, listen to me, it would give me great pleasure to walk you down the aisle and give you away to the man sitting beside you. It's obvious that he loves you with all his heart, and I have no reservations whatsoever about giving your hand to him."

"Good," Emily said, "Now, that that's settled, I wanted to ask the two of you what you're thinking about regarding your housing situation."

"We've been discussing that," Luke said. "I talked to Tom, the contractor who handled the remodel on the house and we've got a meeting set up for when I get back from Philly to take another look at the house and see if there may be room for more expansion."

"So, you're thinking of staying in the house you're in?" Emily looked a little alarmed at this, since she'd spent most of the past week looking at numerous houses trying to find them one that would be big enough to suit their needs, yet still be a place they would feel comfortable living in.

"It's just one idea. It'd be nice because we both love that house, but it may not be feasible with the way our family is growing. We may need to buy a bigger house."

"So, you've contemplated the idea of possibly moving into as larger home?"

"Yes, Mom," Lorelai answered. "We have. What's your sudden obsession with our living situation?"

"It's not an obsession. Just curiosity," her mother replied.

"Well, you made big with the questions about the house and whether we were staying in Stars Hollow last Saturday and now tonight. That sounds a little like obsession to me," She looked at her mother suspiciously. "Now, what gives?"

Emily looked across the table at her husband as if pleading for help.

"Don't look at me, Emily," Richard said. "This was all your idea."

"What was all Mom's idea?" Lorelai asked. "What's going on? Does this have anything to do with you spending insane amounts of time with Kirk?"

Emily sighed and realized it was time to confess to what she'd been up to. "I've been looking for a house in Stars Hollow," she admitted.

"I knew it! See, Luke?" She said, nudging her fiancé. "What did I tell you?" She turned to her mother and asked. "Why would you do that when you already have a beautiful house?"

"This house shopping I'm doing isn't for me. It's for you."

"Me?"

"Well, the two of you and your family."

"You want to buy us a house?"

"Well, I know you're not going to let me give you a wedding, so I thought a house would do. I was thinking it would make a nice wedding present."

"All that running around Stars Hollow, you were looking for a house for us?" She was touched by the idea that her mother had taken so much time to think about her future with Luke.

"Well of course, you didn't think we wanted to live there, did you? Small-town charm is good for a weekend, Lorelai, but I have no interest in having a next-door neighbor walk in with a pie, wanting to chat. I would kill myself and my neighbors."

Luke laughed at this, as he'd had many moments when he'd wanted to kill one of his neighbors, particularly Taylor. "That's a very nice idea, Emily, but I think we've got it covered."

"Now, Luke, I know you're not the kind of man who willingly takes extravagant gifts from people, but Richard and I really want to do this for you. You need a bigger house, especially if you have more children down the road. Your current home is just not big enough for you."

"Well, I said I've got it covered and I meant it and I'm not sure that I like the insinuation that I'm not capable of providing for my family," Luke said starting to get riled at Emily once again interfering in their lives.

"That wasn't my intention, Luke. I never meant to suggest that you wouldn't be a good provider. When I was in the diner the other day, I saw firsthand how hard you work and how much pride you take in making sure your business runs smoothly. I only wanted to take a little pressure off of the two of you as you start your lives together. You've got so much on your plates right now with April and the baby and planning a wedding, all while still trying to run two businesses. I wanted to take a little of the weight off your shoulders."

"I've got strong shoulders. I can take the weight!"

Lorelai reached for his hand, "Honey, at least think about it for a minute. We don't have to decide anything right this second."

Luke pulled away from her angrily, rose from his seat and said, "What's there to think about? The answer is no! Don't you see, Lorelai? This is just one more of your mother's ways of reminding me that I'm not good enough for you in her eyes!"

Emily rose from the table, livid at Luke for his obstinacy, "That's not what I was trying to do! This wasn't another dig at you! I was trying to help you!"

"Well, I don't want or need your help in caring for my family! I'm a grown man and perfectly capable of doing that all on my own!"

April had watched the drama unfolding around her all night and couldn't take it anymore. She too rose from her seat. "Stop it! All of you!" She shouted, looking around at all of them. "What the hell kind of crazy messed up family am I becoming a part of?" Emily looked stunned at April's outburst and was about to say something when she continued, her finger pointed at Emily. "If all you wanted to do was help you should've said something instead of running around behind Dad and Lorelai's backs and doing this all on your own before you even knew if this was something they wanted!" She turned to her father and said, "And you should learn to stop being so damn stubborn and at least hear what people have to say before you lose your temper and start yelling! Maybe she _was_ just trying to help, but you're so bull-headed, you just blow up and assume you know what people are thinking about without even bothering to listen!"

"See what I mean?" Rory said, "You've got your dad's talent for a good rant," breaking the tension in the room.

April blushed and sat back down, not daring to look at anyone, fearing she'd gone too far. Luke laughed at Rory comparing April's flare-up to one of his own and returned to his seat next to Lorelai.  
Richard looked at April and said, "Well, one's things certain, April. With that mouth of yours and your outspoken nature, you're going to fit right in with this crazy messed up family." Even Emily had to laugh at that.

Things at the dinner table calmed down considerably after that, the six of them chatting amiably about the wedding and their family. April expanded more on her math team's upcoming competition and Rory filled them in on her life at school, while Luke and Lorelai related all the details of the busy week they'd had.

After dinner, they all gathered in the living room where Luke had conceded to at least taking a look at the photos Emily had procured of the houses she'd visited, but still unsure of Emily's motivations. He wondered as he looked through the pictures if this was just going to something she could hold over their heads later. "Ok, Emily," He said "Let's say I do agree to let you buy us a new house, I want thing clearly understood."

"I'm listening," She said.

"Keep in mind, I still need some time to think about this. But if, and I'm stressing _if_, I agree to this, I want it understood that this will be _our _home and we'll make any further decisions about what goes on in it. That includes any ideas about remodeling, decorating and most important of all, how we raise our children. You'll always be welcome in our home because you're family and the only grandmother my children are going to have, but there will be no meddling. If you do this, you just write the check and you're done."

"I can live with that," Emily said with a hopeful smile.

TBC

AN: I felt the need in this chapter to borrow a little dialogue from "Driving Miss Gilmore" even though it came later in season six because it was relevant to the house conversation, plus the part about Emily killing her neighbors is pretty funny. It 's just a little out of order from the way it was on the show. Next chapter: Luke and Richard at the batting cages.


	22. Chapter 22

Richard was a little nervous as he and Luke made their way toward the batting cage. He had no idea how this was going to go. He'd never hit a baseball in his life. He looked at his future son-in-law and asked, "Are you sure this protective gear is necessary?" Luke had loaned him a catcher's helmet, chest protector and shin guards to wear.

"Yes, I'm sure."

"You're not wearing any," he pointed out. Luke was dressed in his typical flannel shirt-jeans combination. He noticed how much more relaxed he seemed than the night before at the tension-filled dinner. He seemed at home with a baseball bat slung over his shoulder.

"Yes, but I'm experienced at this. You're not and your wife will murder me if I don't bring you back home in one piece." He took a look at Richard and stifled a laugh at the unusual sight. Richard was usually wearing a suit and tie, but today was wearing jeans and a Yale sweatshirt along with the gear Luke had insisted on him having. "Plus I'm not thrilled with the idea of having to tell my fiancée I got her father killed by getting him hit in the head with a baseball."

"Ok," Richard said with a laugh at Luke's phrasing. They'd reached their destination and Richard looked at Luke and asked a little apprehensively, "So how do we start this?"

"If you want, you can watch me hit a few to start out so you can kind of see how it's done."

"I think I'd like to try it myself, if you don't mind. You could give me some pointers if I get into trouble."

"Ok," Luke said with a little chuckle, remembering their golf outing last year and how nervous he'd been since he wasn't really familiar with the sport. This time Richard was the fish out of water. Luke handed him his bat and walked to the pitching machine to start it. "Are you ready?'

"Shouldn't there be someone to do that for you?"

"No, some places have guys that run the machines," Luke replied. "But I purposely chose this place because you can set the machine up yourself. That way we can go at our own pace, since you've never done this before. Now, are you ready for this?"

"Yes, I'm ready." Richard said raising the bat marveling at how heavy it was. When the first pitch sailed toward him, he jumped back alarmed at the speed of it. "Oh, my word!" He exclaimed. "Is that normal?" Luke couldn't help but laugh. "I'm glad you find this so amusing. I wasn't expecting it to come flying at me like that!"

"Hey, you insisted on going first," as he continued laughing earning a glower from his future-father-in-law. "We'll slow it down, ok?" Luke readjusted the machine and Richard resumed his position.

On the next pitch, Richard took a wild swing and missed by a mile. "This is harder than it looks," he commented as he again swing and missed. After his third miss, he shook his head, lowered the bat and said. "I think I need help."

Luke turned the pitching machine off and walked back to Richard. "Ok, let me help you. First of all, your stance is all wrong. You want to stand with your feet about shoulder width apart." When Richard made the necessary adjustment, Luke added. "Also, you're strangling the bat."

"What does that mean? How do you _strangle _a piece of wood?"

"It means you holding it too tight. You need to relax you grip a little. It gives you more flexibility when you swing."

"I see," Richard said loosening his hold on the bat as Luke had suggested. "Ah, yes, that feels better already."

"Next thing it, you need to hold the bat a little higher."

"Like this?" Richard questioned, raising the bat.

"That's a little too high," he replied as he reached out and lowered Richard's arms. "That's about right there."

"Ok," he said feeling like a fool and wondering why he'd ever agreed to this in the first place.

"Now, one more thing, when you swing, you need to swing from the hips first, not the arms." Luke mimed holding a bat and swinging to demonstrate.

"I never knew there was so much involved in just trying to hit a baseball."

Luke laughed a little and said, "I know the feeling."

Richard joined in his laughter remembering how awkward Luke had been on the golf course. He understood now. He supposed this was his payback for roping Luke into playing golf with him. "I suppose this is how you felt last year when we played golf last year, isn't it?"

"Well, _you _played while I made a complete ass of myself."

"Like I'm doing now?"Richard asked feeling ridiculous.

Luke laughed again and asked, "Do you think you're ready to try again?"

"Yes," Richard replied with a determined nod of his head. Luke walked back down to the pitching machine and started it up again. Richard swung and again missed. "I don't think I can do this."

"Sure, you can. If you can hit a golf ball the way you do, you can get this. Just keep your eye on the ball."

On the next swing, there was a dull thud as Richard grazed the ball with the bat. "Hey, I did it!"

"Well, that would've been a foul ball, but at least you made contact. That's progress."

Richard smiled and tried again, missing the next two, but on the third try, he was rewarded with a loud crack that sent the ball flying against the backstop of the cage.

"There you go, Richard. That could've easily been a home run!" Luke said, exaggerating a little, but it _was _a nice hit.

Richard beamed. They went on like this for a while before Richard suggested switching places. Luke showed Richard how to operate the pitching machine took the bat from him and walked to the front of the cage. Richard watched in amazement as Luke expertly hit ball after ball, not missing a single one. He noticed he even varied his swing a little, causing different reactions in the ball. He couldn't believe how at ease Luke was doing this. He made it look so effortless when he knew now it was anything but. When the balls were depleted, Luke started gathering them up and loading them back into the pitching machine.

"So," Richard began, "If you and Lorelai have a son, I suppose you'll be teaching him how to do this."

"Yeah, I guess," he said. "If that's something he wants to learn. I hadn't really thought that far ahead. Right now, I just want to make sure that Lorelai gets through this pregnancy safe and sound and that my children are born healthy."

"I understand," The older man replied. "Being an expectant father is a terrifying experience, but also joyous at the same time."

Luke nodded in agreement, and leaned against the chain link of the cage. "I'm happy about the babies, but I'd be lying if I didn't admit that I'm also a little scared, especially after talking to the doctor the other day. I never knew there was so much that could go wrong before they're even born. I want to try to look after Lorelai as much as I can, but I don't know what the hell I'm doing."

"No man ever does when the woman he loves is expecting. All you can do is be there for Lorelai when she needs you." Richard paused for moment thinking about the scene in the bathroom he'd witnessed the previous evening. "I'm guessing from the snippets of your conversation with her that I overheard last night that this pregnancy wasn't exactly planned."

"Not in the strictest sense, no," Luke answered. "I mean, we planned on having kids, just not at this particular moment in our lives. But the fact that it took us by surprise doesn't mean that they're unwanted or unloved."

Richard nodded in understanding. "Of course you know that if Emily has her way, they'll be the most spoiled children on the face of the earth."

Luke laughed heartily, "Don't I know it," he said shaking his head. "So, are you ready to try again?" He gestured to the pitching machine.

"Certainly. I think I might get the hang of this yet," he said with a laugh as he walked back to front of the cage where Luke had left the bat.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Lorelai and Rory walked out of Banana Republic arms laden with shopping bags and continued their quest to hit every store in the mall before going back to Stars Hollow. "I still can't believe you wanted that skirt. It makes you look like J. Lo," Lorelai said to her daughter.

"It does not!" Rory said indignantly.

"Yeah, it does. You know you've kind of got that ghetto booty thing going on," she said with a laugh.

"Gee, Mom, thanks for telling me I've got a big ass! You just wait until you start getting big and fat in the next couple of months. We'll see who's laughing then, Missy."

Lorelai gasped. "You'd do that? Pick on your poor, fat, pregnant Mommy who's buying you clothes?"

"Yep! Although I do have to say thanks for the massive amounts of new clothes," She said indicating her bags.

"You're welcome, though technically you've got Daddy Luke to thank for that. It's his MasterCard I've been using all day."

"So, the mom-sponsored shopping trip you promised me is actually Luke-sponsored? I mean, you're not actually the one paying for this stuff."

"Trust me, Kid. I'll be _paying _for the use of his credit card," she said with a wicked grin.

"Ewww! Did your really have to go there? I've accepted that you've done the dirty, but I don't want to hear about it."

"And here I was hoping you'd stop at Victoria's Secret with me so I can do some pre-honeymoon shopping."

"No. I have no desire to help you pick out stuff to seduce my surrogate daddy with."

"Come on! It'll be fun!"

"No!"

"Yes!"

Rory stopped walking as they reached Barnes and Noble, "Ok, I'll agree to go slutty lingerie shopping with you if you stop in here with me first."

"Nooo," Lorelai whined. "You take forever in bookstores."

"That's the deal. Take it or leave it."

"Fine, but I'm doing this under protest," She pouted as they walked into the bookstore. "And any books you want, you're buying yourself. I promised you clothes, not books."

"OK, Mom, but I don't want to hear you complain about how much time we're spending in here if you want my cooperation in the dirty underwear store."

"Whatever," Lorelai replied as Rory started browsing through the books, leaving her wandering aimlessly around the store. She was making her way toward the magazine rack when she spotted a familiar head of auburn hair in the science section. _It couldn't be, _she thought as she strolled casually over to the woman. "Mom?"

Emily turned. "Oh, Lorelai, what are you doing here?"

"Rory and I are doing some shopping."

"Rory's here, too?"

"Yeah, sort of a mother-daughter thing while Luke's out teaching dad how to hit a baseball. What are you doing here, and with…" she leaned over her mother's shoulder to look at the book she was holding, "…_Molecular Biology of the Cell_? You taking up some light reading?"

"Don't be ridiculous, Lorelai. This isn't for me. I was looking for something for April. She mentioned last night that her thirteenth birthday is coming up and she told us last weekend that she wants to be a molecular biologist when she grows up."

"You want to buy April a birthday present?" Lorelai asked in disbelief.

Emily slammed the book back into its place on the shelf and glared at her daughter. "Why is that so shocking to you? I've been doing the best I can to try to be supportive of your upcoming marriage to Luke and all you want to do is mock me for it!"

"No mocking, Mom. I'm just surprised that you're taking such an interest in April."

"Well, I don't understand why. You know how important family is to me. Come June third, you and Luke are going to be husband and wife, making April your step-daughter and my step-granddaughter. I think important for me to be just as involved in her life as I am in Rory's or the child you're carrying now."

"Ok, Mom, take a breath. I didn't realize you felt this strongly about it. If you want to buy April a birthday present by all means, go right ahead."

"Thanks for the permission to spend my money how I see fit," Emily replied sarcastically.

"It's always gonna be like this with us, isn't it?" Lorelai said sadly.

"It doesn't have to be, "Emily said quietly looking down at her shoes to avoid letting her daughter see her vulnerable side. "I want so much to be a real part of your life. I've been really trying to watch what I say to you lately because I don't want you to shut me out again."

"Mom, I don't want you to feel you have to censor yourself every time we're around each other, but maybe just tone it down a bit. Sometimes the things you say are really hurtful."

"I never meant to hurt you, Lorelai. I just can't stand the thought of you cutting me out of your life again like you've done before." She looked back up at her daughter.

"If you recall, the last two times I did that were because of things you did to me. "First, you tried to break up my relationship with Luke-"

"I already apologized for that _and _I also tried to get you two back together!"

"But when you tried to get us back together that was for purely selfish reasons, so I'd start coming back to Friday dinners, not because you really believed I'd be happy with Luke."

"Well, I believe it now. Doesn't that count for anything?"

"Sure, it does, if you really mean that and you're not just saying it to stay on my good side."

"I'm not, Lorelai. I saw the way your whole face lit up when you saw the flowers he'd left you. I've seen you in several relationships in the past, but I'd never seen that look before."

"What look, Mom?"

"The look that says you're in love. I never thought I'd ever see that in you, especially with a man like Luke."

"What the hell does that mean, a man like Luke?" Lorelai crossed her arms, her defenses up again.

"Why do you always have to get so defensive? I only meant that he's different that the other men you've been with. They were little boys playing at being men. He's a real _man, _a grown-up. I never thought that would be appealing to you. In the past you seemed to view a boyfriend as a playmate, someone to have a good time with, but not really get close to."

"I guess that's true," she admitted. "You know, it wasn't until Luke and I broke up that I really figured out how much I love him. That month we spent apart, I felt like I was dying. It hurt so much, I didn't think I could survive the pain."

"I caused you that pain. I'm sorry."

Before Lorelai could respond, Rory came bounding up to them, "There you are! You won't believe some of the great stuff I found," she said, holding up a new shopping bag. "Hi, Grandma," she said as she noticed Emily standing there.

"Hello, Rory," her grandmother replied.

"That didn't take very long," Lorelai said in surprise.

"College student," Rory reminded her mother. "Limited funds, but I found some great sales. Come on, now, Mom. Let's go get you all tarted up."

"Tarted up?" Emily inquired.

"Yeah, Mom, we were gonna hit Victoria's Secret next so I could start prepping for making Luke's eyeballs pop out on our honeymoon," she said mischievously.

"_Honestly, _Lorelai, was that necessary?"

"You're welcome to join us, Grandma. That is, If you're not too weirded out by the idea of shopping for sleazy undies for your daughter."

"Who said anything about sleazy?" Lorelai said. "You can buy something sexy without it being sleazy."

"Who are you kidding, Mom? This is _you _we're talking about."

Emily watched the teasing banter between her daughter and granddaughter and felt a little out of place. She would never have dreamed of talking to her mother the way Rory did to Lorelai. She thought this was just one more thing about the two of them she didn't understand. She didn't want to infringe upon their time together when they were obviously both enjoying themselves. "Are you sure I wouldn't be intruding if I tagged along?"

"Not at all, Mom," Lorelai said. "As long as you keep the judgmental comments to yourself if the conversation turns a little racy. We _are _talking about honeymoon shopping and we all know what couples do on their honeymoon."

"Please, Lorelai," her mother said in an exasperated tone as the three of them walked out of the bookstore and toward their next destination. "I'm not a prude. Honestly, you act like I've never had sex myself."

"Obviously, you've done the deed, Mom, or I wouldn't be here. I just prefer to think of you and dad only having done it one time."

Rory laughed at this and said, "Now you know what it feels like, Mom."

"Nobody likes to think about their parents having sex," Lorelai said as they walked into Victoria's Secret and started perusing the racks.

"Or their children, for that matter," Emily added with a smirk aimed at Lorelai.

"Don't I know it," Lorelai said with a similar look directed at Rory.

"Oh, this is lovely," Emily said as she plucked an elegant white lacy peignoir off the rack and showed it her daughter.

"It's nice, Mom, but don't you think it's a little too W_hite Wedding _for me?

"White wedding?"

"Virginal, Mom. I'm already knocked up, so I think the whole image of the virgin bride thing is kind of shot."

"I'm well aware that you're not a virgin, Lorelai. I got that memo when you were sixteen. I just don't see why you don't want to wear something nice for your husband on your wedding night."

"I _do _want to wear something nice for him, but I also want it to be a little naughty."

"How's this for naughty?" Rory suggested as she held up a black lacy teddy that left very little to the imagination."

"A little _too _naughty. You want me to change my name to Miss Mona and move to the Chicken Ranch?"

"Well, what exactly are you looking for, Mom? It's not like I know what turns Luke on in the bedroom."

"And that's a good thing, because that is just _way _too creepy to think about."

"Well, it would help if we had some kind of clue what you're looking for, Lorelai," Emily added.

"Well, Luke's pretty much a leg man, which works out really nicely, since I'm a tall girl. So, for Luke, it's gotta be something that shows off my legs, but something kind of classy at the same time. He's not really into the whole crotchless panties skank scene."

"Hmmm, "Rory said. "I always imagined Luke was more of an ass man, myself. I've seen the way he checks you out when you wear those tight jeans."

"It's the leg factor at work when I wear the tight jeans, though. He likes it better when I wear the short skirts, especially if I'm going commando."

"Ok, ewww," Rory said making a face. "Now, you're just being evil, putting imagery in my head that I don't want there."

Lorelai giggled at her daughter's embarrassment. "Your face is turning red!"

"Stop it!"

"Lorelai, you're embarrassing your daughter," Emily said.

"Hey, you agreed, no judgment."

"Just, please tell me you guys have never done in the diner," Rory said. "If you have, I can never eat there again."

"Not _in _the diner. That would be unsanitary. Now the storage room, on the other hand…"

"Lorelai, _really!_" Emily said. "Must you do that?"

"Come on, Mom. This is fun! Besides you weren't at all shy last night about nosing into our sex life."

Emily relaxed a little and realized she was right. She had to admit, she _was _curious. "So, is Luke good to you?"

"Yes, Mom, he looks after me. You've seen that for yourself, or so you said."

"I didn't mean in how he treats you, I meant is he _good_ to you." When Lorelai still looked at her blankly she said, "In the bedroom, Lorelai! Goodness, for a woman who can turn any innocent comment into a dirty joke, you're acting a little clueless."

"Mom, are you _seriously_ asking me if Luke is a good lover?"

"You know what, "Rory said. "I think I'm just gonna go have a look at what's on the other side of the store" She walked away not wanting to be a part of any discussion detailing her parents' sex life.

"Is that such an insane thing to ask? You _are_ committing to spending the rest of your life with him. You don't want to do that with someone who can't please you in bed."

"Hello, Mom? I'm pregnant, remember?"

"What has that got to do with anything? A woman can get pregnant from a bad sexual encounter the same way she can from a good one."

"Trust me, Mom. There have been no bad 'encounters' between me and Luke. He's very…" she struggled to find the right word that wouldn't freak her mother out, still disbelieving that they were even having this conversation,"…attentive," she said, completing her thought finally. "He's always trying to make sure that he pleases me."

"Good," Emily said a little awkwardly. "That's good. Now, let's find you something that will please him," she said as she resumed her browsing, not quite able to believe that her daughter had been that open with her about something so private. She smiled a little as she hoped Lorelai's openness would continue in the future.

TBC


	23. Chapter 23

Three generations of Gilmore women walked into the kitchen of the crap shack to find Luke and Richard sitting at the table having a beer together and laughing.

"What's wrong with this picture?" Lorelai said. "My fiancé and my dad laughing and drinking beer? Out of the bottle, no less? Have I just stepped Into the Twilight Zone?"

"You know what they say, Lorelai," Her father replied, "When in Rome…"

"My God," Luke said when he saw the numerous bags Lorelai and Rory were carrying. "How much stuff did you buy?"

"More than enough," she said as she greeted him with a kiss and set her shopping bags on the countertop.

"Just tell me I'm not gonna cry when I see my MasterCard bill."

"Oh, Yes, my friend, there will be massive amounts of tears when that bill arrives."

"I wouldn't be surprised if it was so big that it had to be delivered by freight train," Rory added with a giggle.

"That's a dangerous endeavor, Luke," Richard said with a smile. "Handing your credit card off to a Gilmore woman."

"That's it!" Luke said to Lorelai in mock anger. "Hand it over! You are cut off!"

"Fine," she pouted as she dug his credit card out of her purse and handed it to him. "But you haven't even seen what I bought yet."

"Please tell me it was some self-discipline," he said with a smirk as he put the card back in his wallet.

"I don't think you afford that, Hon. That would be _way _over your credit limit. Now, just to clarify, when you said I'm cut off, you just meant the credit card, not anything else, right?" She said with an impish grin.

"That depends. What have you got there in the Victoria's Secret bag?"He questioned with a wink.

"Something you don't get to see until after June third, but if you play your cards right I may just give you a sneak preview tonight."

"Get a room," Rory groaned, inciting laughter from both her parents and grandparents. "So, Grandpa," she said eager to change the subject. "How was your first trip to the batting cages?"

Luke went to the fridge to get another beer and asked, "Richard, would you like another one?"

"Yes, thank you, Luke."

"Can I get one too, Luke?" Rory asked, dropping her shopping bags into the doorway of her room and sitting next to her grandfather.

"Emily, would you like anything?" Luke asked. "We've got stuff besides beer."

"Actually, I think I'd like a beer, too. It's been ages since I drank a beer," she said as she took the other seat next to her husband.

Lorelai's jaw dropped when she heard this. "_You're _gonna drink a beer? I really have stepped into the Twilight Zone."

Luke got the beers from the fridge and a bottle of water for Lorelai who sat at the end of the table. As he passed the drinks around, he looked at the full table and started to head out the back door.

"Where are you going?"His fiancée asked.

"I'll be right back. I'm just gonna go grab one of the extra chairs from the garage."

"Don't worry about it. We can share this one," she said getting up from her chair and motioning for him to sit down when she then settled into his lap and slid one arm around his neck.

"There are more chairs for this table?" Emily asked. "It barely looks big enough for the four that are in here."

"It came with a leaf for it to make it longer and a total of six chairs, but it's been just the two of us in the house for quite a while, and occasionally Rory, on the weekends, so we never used them."

"Well, with April visiting and another child on the way, you'll need them in the future."

"Grandpa, you never did answer my question," Rory reminded Richard.

"Oh, right," He said. "Believe it or not, I actually had fun. I was no good at it, but I enjoyed it all the same."

"Really?" Emily said, taking a swig of her beer. "I wouldn't have imagined it."

"Luke was quite good, though. I can see why he was offered baseball scholarships in his youth."

"Thank you, Richard. You didn't really do all that bad for your first time ever trying it," Luke said. You were actually hitting a few before they hit you toward the end there," he added with a laugh.

"You got hit with the ball?" Lorelai queried, amusement dancing in her eyes.

"Twice," he admitted sheepishly. "It was just a good thing Luke insisted on me wearing protective gear so I wouldn't get hurt. My arms are a little sore from swinging the bat, though."

Lorelai laughed still trying to picture her dad attempting to hit a baseball. Luke tried to shush her to no avail. "It wasn't _that _bad," he said. "I just wish I'd thought to borrow a lighter bat for you, Richard. I'm so used to mine it didn't even occur to me that it might be too heavy for someone who's never swung a bat before. And no dirty bat jokes from you," he said to Lorelai sensing she about to do just that.

"Spoil my fun," she moped.

"Save them for later," he said then dropped his voice and whispered, "When we're alone." Though he got embarrassed by her dirty comments in public, he actually enjoyed them when they were alone in the privacy of their bedroom.

"I still can't get over all of this," Lorelai said, shaking her head.

"All what, Lorelai?" her mother asked.

"Well, for starters, you sitting there, drinking a beer and dad playing baseball with Luke. It's like two worlds colliding."

"Well, I think it's high time you let your two worlds collide. You've kept your father and me separate from your life here in Stars Hollow for far too long. And for the record, this is not the first time I've ever drunk a beer. I used to drink it all the time in college."

"It's true," Richard said, surprised that Emily admitted to it. "At many a fraternity party."

"It _is _the college drink of choice, "Rory said. "Primarily because it's cheap and most college students are broke."

"I'm actually surprised to see you here, Emily." Richard said. "I didn't know you'd planned on joining the girls on their shopping trip."

"I hadn't," Emily replied. "I didn't even know they were going shopping today." She looked pointedly at Lorelai.

"Mom, we invited you to join us once we knew you were there, didn't we? And you had a good time helping pick out sexy lingerie to entice my man with on our honeymoon."

"Jeez, Lorelai," Luke said blushing a little. He was a little uncomfortable with the idea of Emily helping Lorelai pick out lingerie to wear for him.

"Come on, Luke! We're all adults here and not one of us is a virgin. Plus, my parents already know that you got me pregnant, so they know that we're sleeping together."

"I know all that, Lorelai, but that doesn't mean that I'm comfortable discussing this in front of your parents or your daughter."

"So," Emily said to break the tension in the room. "What are your honeymoon plans? Have you decided on a destination yet?"

"We picked up a whole bunch of brochures from the travel agent the other day, so we've been discussing it," Luke answered.

"More like debating," Lorelai said.

"It hasn't been that bad."

"Who are you trying to kid? I'm going, 'Look, Honey, this one's pretty' and you're like 'who the hell in their right mind would wanna go there?' I'm still thinking Cancun myself."

"Cancun? As in Mexico?" Lorelai nodded. "As in 'don't drink the water or you might catch something' Mexico? No, Absolutely not."

"Why not? There's all kinds of stuff to do there. They have that lobster cruise thing…"

"Yeah, 'cause I had such great luck on the last cruise I went on," he said, his skepticism not stopping Lorelai.

"…and there's snorkeling…"

"You seriously wanna go snorkeling while you're pregnant?"

"…and beaches and plus you already speak the language."

"You do?"Emily queried.

"Yeah, I speak fluent Spanish," Luke confirmed.

"Hmmm," Emily said thoughtfully on discovering one more piece of the Luke puzzle.

"Another thing in Cancun's favor is that the Maya ruins aren't that far away," Rory said. "That'd be kind of cool to explore."

"For _you_, maybe. That's not my idea of a good time.

"Mine either," Luke said.

"Hey, that's progress toward picking a location for our honeymoon. We both know we don't want to see the Maya ruins."

Luke chuckled and said, "You know, I don't really care where we go as long as we're together."

"Aw, that's so sweet."

Rory made a gagging noise earning a glare from both Luke and Lorelai. "God, Mom! You've got to stop making Luke so happy. You're totally ruining his reputation. Now, who's going to entertain the town by getting mad and tossing people out of his restaurant?"

"There's always Al," Lorelai suggested.

"Like Al can afford to lose any business,' Luke said. "His food stinks."

"His food doesn't stink, although yours is much better,' she said sweetly and then turned back to her daughter. "Don't worry, Kid. The grumpy diner owner is not gone. Just wait until Taylor walks in with another one of his hair-brained ideas for redecorating the diner. No one inspires a good Luke rant like Taylor."

"True," Rory agreed.

"Would that be Taylor Doose you're talking about?"Emily asked.

"How do you know Taylor Doose, Mom?"Lorelai asked.

"I don't actually _know _him, but when I was looking at houses, I was told he was the one to talk to about zoning issues and property lines and things of that nature."

"Yeah, that would be Taylor. He's the town selectman, plus he owns the market and the soda shop."

"My word!" Richard exclaimed. "When does the man sleep?"

"I don't think he does, " Luke quipped, "He's probably a vampire, the way he likes to suck the life out of everyone around him, though it does give me a great deal of pleasure collecting a rent check from him once a month."

"You so need to brush up on your vampire mythology if you think Taylor's a vampire. He's been seen out in direct sunlight way too often to be a vampire."

Luke chuckled and said, "I guess I can't really complain too much about Taylor for the moment. He was actually pretty good about getting us the permits we need for our wedding without too much of a fight."

"That reminds me, "Emily began, "What made the two of you decide to have your wedding in the town square?"

_Uh-oh, _Lorelai thought. _Here comes the judgment._ "It's a place that holds a lot of meaning for us. We've spent a lot of time together there since we've known each other."

"I'll never forget the night we got engaged and you chasing all those bikers out of the gazebo so we could have a moment alone to celebrate," Luke said reminiscing a little.

"And you were standing there with that impatient look on your face with that case of Zima under your arm."

"Right, the Zima! Probably the most disgusting beer known to mankind."

"Wait," Rory said. "Luke was drinking Zima? I have to get a mental picture of this."

Lorelai laughed. "Yes, he was," she replied. "The proposal happened so spontaneously that we didn't really have anything to toast with and Taylor had a case of Zima in the back of the store and there you go."

"I have to say I wasn't exactly prepared for that. The last thing in the world I expected when you walked into the diner so upset that night was you proposing to me."

"You proposed to him?"Emily said in shock, "Lorelai!"

Lorelai smacked him, "See what you started?"

"Ow!" Luke yelled. "What? What did I say that was so wrong? That's what happened!"

Emily gaped at her daughter and said, "Haven't I taught you anything? You don't propose to a man! That's his job. You completely robbed Luke of his moment to romance you."

"Mom, what difference does it make how we got engaged? The point is that we're getting married. Besides, Luke did get him moment to romance me. He showed up here a few days later with this amazing ring in his pocket and presented to me under the chuppah he built for me."

Emily reached for Lorelai's left hand," Let me see it."

"What?"

"The ring. Let me see it."

"You've seen it before, Mom. I've been wearing it for eleven months."

"But I never really _looked _at it before. Would you just humor your mother?" She grabbed Lorelai's hand and examined her engagement ring closely then said to Luke. "You picked this ring out yourself?"

"Yeah, I did," he replied a little nervously, not sure what was coming next from his very critical mother-in-law-to-be."

Emily released her daughter's hand, and then said, "It's a lovely ring," After a moment she added, "Of course, it's not exactly _my _taste…"

"Well, I didn't buy It for you," Luke said defensively.

"…But it's perfect for Lorelai." She continued as if Luke hadn't interrupted.

"That's what I thought when I first saw it. In fact I even said 'This one looks like Lorelai'"

"Well, I've often told my girls that it's important to find a man who can pick out your jewelry."

"Liz was pretty impressed by her big brother's good taste when she first saw it," Lorelai said.

"By the way, thanks so much for asking Liz to be a bridesmaid," Luke said sarcastically. "Because of that, I got rooked into having TJ as a groomsman."

"TJ?" Emily inquired.

"My crazy sister's idiot husband," Luke replied.

"TJ's not so bad," Lorelai said.

"Are you forgetting that he sledgehammered our bedroom? You should've let me garrote him when I wanted to."

"There was no way I was going to let you garrote your brother-in-law and break your sister's heart. Besides, Look at it this way, at least our wedding will be entertaining with TJ in the wedding party, not one of those boring weddings where everybody's just hanging around the reception for the free food."

"Speaking of weddings, did you look at today's mail yet? We got an invitation to Lane's wedding."

"Already?"

"Yeah, it's two weeks from today."

"That soon? Man, they're moving fast. They've only been engaged for, like, a minute while we've been engaged almost a year and they're getting married before us. That is so not fair."

"Hey, seven weeks from today and we'll be married too."

"Are you planning on changing your name when you get married, Lorelai?"Emily asked.

Lorelai shifted on Luke's lap a little nervously, not sure how her mother would respond to her answer. "Um, I've been thinking about that a lot and I've decided that I'm going to."

"You're taking my name?" Luke asked with a delighted smile on his face.

"Yeah, I mean, it's going to be a little weird at first, 'cause I've been Lorelai Gilmore for almost thirty-eight years, but it's the right thing to do. Luke's going to be my husband, we should share the same name, plus Junior here's going to have daddy's name and I don't want to have a different last name than my kid." She said as she affectionately stroked her stomach.

"Oh, that's fine," Rory said jokingly. "Just forget about the kid you already share a name with."

"Rory, it's nothing to do with not wanting to share a name with you anymore…"

"I get it, Mom. I was just teasing."

"I think it's good that you're taking Luke's name," Emily said. "You're right; it _is _the right thing to do. It's tradition. I just wasn't sure you would want to do that since you're so untraditional. I mean, you _did_ propose to him after all."

"Here we go again," Lorelai groaned. "I thought we covered this already-"

Richard interrupted before the conversation could turn into another argument between the mother and daughter. "I'd like to propose a toast, "he said raising his bottle. "To the future Mr. and Mrs. Danes, may they have a long and happy life together!"

"I'll drink to that!" Rory said as they toasted Luke and Lorelai. She smiled when she thought about her 'crazy messed up' family as April had called them the night before and how they were at least trying to understand each other.

TBC


	24. Chapter 24

The next afternoon at the bridal shop, April fidgeted nervously on the stool she was standing on while the seamstress and her future step-mother hovered around her.

"April, Honey," Lorelai said. "You're gonna have to stand still if you don't wanna get poked with pins."

"I'm sorry," April replied. "It's just I've never done this before. I'm not the 'buy a fancy dress' kind of girl. I'm more the 't-shirt and jeans' kind of girl."

"If you don't want to do this, you don't have to. Just say the word and we're outta here. You won't hurt my feelings if you change your mind."

"No, I want to do this. You and dad are so great together and you've been so good to me under the circumstances, I wanna be up there with you guys when you get married."

"We want you up there with us, but the choice is completely up to you. If you'd rather just sit and watch that's fine too."

"I'm just worried I'll mess everything up. You only get one wedding day and I'm so awkward and clumsy? What happens if I trip and fall on my face walking down the aisle?"

"If it happens, it happens, but I don't see it happening. That's what rehearsals are for. Even if it does happen, you'll have big sister Rory there to pick you up if you fall." Lorelai meant that figuratively as well as literally. She'd noticed a drastic change in Rory's attitude toward April since she and Luke had talked with her on Monday. She knew that no matter what, her daughter would not let anything happen to April. Sure, they were still getting used to each other, but things were progressing nicely. They'd found some common interests that they could use as a tool to break the ice when they were together even though there was a big age gap between them. While they didn't have a sisterly bond yet, Lorelai was confident that that would change with time, especially since they would be sharing big sisterly responsibilities for the twins. Lorelai was a little nervous about the upcoming family dinner tonight when she and Luke planned to tell both girls that there were two babies on the way and not just one. She hoped that the news wouldn't stir up more tension and undo all the progress they'd made over the last week.

"Rory's pretty cool," April said pulling Lorelai from her musings. "I've always wished I had a big sister, now in a way, I will. Did she tell you she invited me out to see the Yale campus sometime?"

"No, she didn't," Lorelai said, pleased by her daughter's generosity.

"We didn't make a formal plan or anything. It's just kind of a standing invitation if we can work it out with all my extracurricular activities and hers and get it okayed by my mom."

"You haven't talked to your mom about it yet?"

"No, she's still a little wigged about the fact that I'm gonna be on a trip for a week and a half without her. I figured I'd kind of ease her into the idea after I get back."

"How are you planning on doing that?"

"Well, I thought I'd start with pointing out that it will be educational for me to see the campus, since she knows I've got my heart set on Yale Medical. Plus, the fact that Rory's roommate is Pre-med gives me an added bonus, since she can give me some pointers."

"Here's a tip. If you want your mom to let you go, don't let her meet Paris ahead of time or she'll never agree to it."

April laughed. "Yeah, Rory told me she's a bit of a challenge."

"So, you guys have been talking a lot?"

"Mostly texting, but still communicating."

"Ok, April, You're done," the seamstress said. "You can hop down now and take the dress off so we can get it altered for you. It actually shouldn't take long. All we need to do is hem it to match the length of the other dresses and take it in at the bustline a little."

April did as she was told and commented on the proposed alterations."Yeah, I know. I don't have anywhere near enough boobs for this dress."

"You're only twelve. You've got time," Lorelai said as April walked into the dressing room to change and turned to the seamstress and asked, "Did I hear you right? You said other _dresses_, right? I thought Rory's was the only one done."

The seamstress shook her head. "No, Sookie was in here last weekend and Liz was here this morning. So Sookie's dress is already done and Liz's will be done today, then we can start on April's and on the guys tuxes."

"The guys haven't even been in here yet, have they?"

"All of them but Jess. He won't be able to make for two weeks, but Jackson was in here with Sookie and TJ came with Liz this morning and Luke was here yesterday with your father."

"Luke came in here with my dad yesterday?"

"Yeah, they said they'd just come from the batting cages. Of course, Luke, being Luke, he grumbled the whole time we were taking his measurements."

Lorelai laughed," That's my man." Lorelai was touched that Luke had already been in to be measured for his tux and with her dad, no less. She was a little surprised by this as she knew Luke hated to get dressed up. He was more comfy in his faded jeans and flannel. She figured he'd wait until the last possible moment to go to the bridal shop.

"You're a lucky lady, Lorelai. The man may like to complain, but he does have a damn fine ass."

"Yes, he does," Lorelai agreed with a giggle.

"Ewww," April said as she exited the dressing room and handed her dress to the seamstress. "I so don't wanna hear about my dad's ass."

Lorelai laughed and said,"Ok. Fair enough. Now, let's see about getting you some shoes. They have a lot of styles here that can be dyed to match your dress."

"Cool," April said as Lorelai steered her over the rack of shoes on the other side of the room. April picked up a pair of strappy sandals with a small daisy in the center of the toe strap and said, "These are pretty and they match the theme of the wedding. Didn't you say daisies were going to be your wedding flowers?"

"Yeah, those are great, but they have a two inch heel on them. Wouldn't you be more comfortable in a flat since you've never walked in heels before?"

April's face fell a little, "The wedding's seven weeks away. You don't think I could learn to walk in heels by then?"

"I'm sure you are perfectly capable of doing anything you set your mind to. You're a very bright determined girl, but I also remember just a few minutes ago you were afraid you might trip walking down the aisle."

April put the shoes back on the shelf. "You're probably right. The only place I'm really graceful is in the pool. That's why I tried out for the swim team and not any other sports. I'm much better at academics than physical stuff."

Seeing the disappointment on her future step-daughter's face, Lorelai offered a compromise."I'll tell you what, April. Why don't you go ahead and try them on and see if you can at least stay standing in them, then we'll go from there. If you don't think you can handle it, then we'll get you something with a lower heel and one of those cool shoe clip=on things, so you can stick with the daisy theme if you want to. "

April face brightened. "Assuming I _can _stay standing, do you think you could help me learn to walk in them?"

"Absolutely, I am an expert high heel walker. Excuse me," she called out to the clerk picking up the shoes, "Can we try these in a size…" she looked at April for confirmation.

"Six," April completed.

The clerk brought out the proper size and April sat down to try them on, but hesitated before standing up, not wanting to make a fool of herself in front of her future step-mother. Lorelai sensed her nervousness and lent her an arm to lean on, helping April to her feet.

"You ok?" She asked the twelve year old, once she was standing.

"Yeah, this isn't so bad," she said. She took a tentative step and immediately stumbled.

Lorelai caught her before she could fall and said, "Take it easy. You can't rush it. Give yourself a minute to get used to the extra height."

"Ok," she said, balancing herself again.

"You ok if I let go?"

April nodded, Lorelai let go and she stood there for a moment to let her equilibrium return to normal, took a deep breath and tried again. This time she managed to take four steps in the heels for crashing into the stool she'd been standing on earlier. Lorelai rushed over to her.

"Are you ok?"She asked and helped her up

"Yeah, just embarrassed more than anything, but I want to try again."

"Are you sure? I don't want you to hurt yourself."

"I'm sure."

"How about I walk beside you? That way if you feel like you're gonna fall, you can lean on me."

After several more tries, some stumbling and some near misses, April managed to walk all the way across the room without falling. Lorelai looked at her with a proud smile on her face. Seeing how pleased April was with herself reminded her of the long ago day when she was doing the same with Rory.

"So, what do you think? Do you think I can handle it by the time June third comes around?"

"I think you've got a good shot at it, but only if you feel comfortable with it."

"I do," April said. "I think with a little more practice, I'll be a pro ."

"Ok, these are the shoes then," Lorelai said. "Go ahead and take them off so we can get them dyed. That way you'll have them in enough time for you to get more comfortable walking in them before the wedding."

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

While April and Lorelai were shopping, Luke and Rory were having a bonding moment of their own in the kitchen of the crap shack, preparing to make one of Luke's turtle cheesecakes. Luke was teaching Rory the secret to his caramel sauce that Sookie coveted.

"Now, keep stirring," Luke was saying. "You can't stop stirring it until you take it off the heat or it starts to thicken up too much, and then it's not good for anything but breaking your teeth."

Rory laughed and said, "I can't believe you're showing me this. You've never given this recipe to anyone, not even Caesar and he's worked for you forever."

"This recipe just better not find its way into Sookie's hands. If it does, I know who to come looking for. You just keep stirring while I start on the chocolate."

She laughed again. "This is pretty cool. I've started to really enjoy cooking."

"I never knew you had an interest in it until that weekend in Martha's Vineyard when I saw you in the kitchen with that apron on, or I'd have starting teaching you stuff sooner. I just always thought you were like your mom in having no desire to ever learn to cook."

"Yeah, Mom _is _pretty hopeless in the kitchen."

"That's probably what she keeps me around for," He said jokingly.

"Hey, don't say that, even in a joking way. Mom really loves you. If you'd seen how devastated she was when the two of you broke up, you'd never have any reason to doubt her feelings for you."

"I don't doubt her feelings for me. Not anymore."

"Good, 'cause if you ever broke her heart again I'd have to hunt you down and kill you."

Luke laughed at this, then turned serious trying to bring up a subject he knew might be painful for Rory to discuss, but he'd wanted to do it for a week now. He just hadn't really found the proper time and place for it. The last time they'd talked alone was on Monday, right after she'd broken up with Logan. When he went back to New Haven on Thursday, Paris was there so he didn't bring it up then either. They'd danced around the subject Friday night, but with all the tension in the room, that definitely wasn't a good time to bring it up. "Rory, now that you mention people getting their hearts broken, there's something I've been meaning to talk to you about regarding the wedding."

"What about it? Please tell me you're not getting cold feet again. Mom would be crushed and I meant what I said. I love you, Luke, but I _will _hurt you if you hurt her again."

"First of all, let me set the record straight, I _never _had cold feet about wanting to marry your mom. I love her more than I've ever loved anyone in my life. I never meant to hurt her by postponing the wedding. That wasn't about her at all. That was more about the fact that I was completely thrown when I found out I had a daughter out there that I never knew about. A daughter that I should have been taking care of, and your mom and I had been talking about having kids together and here I was, a deadbeat dad to my own kid. I was just like those guys I'd always hated who were never there for their kids."

"Luke, you were not a deadbeat dad to April. You never knew about her, but when you did, you made every effort to be a part of her life and I respect that tremendously, even though I got a little insane with jealousy when I felt like I was losing the only real dad I've ever known."

"You know you're never gonna lose me. I love you, Kid," he said as he patted her on the shoulder and kissed the top of her head.

"I love you, Daddy Luke," she said repeating her mother's words from yesterday as she slid her free arm around his waist and half hugged him the best way she could with one arm still stirring the caramel sauce. He beamed at her calling him 'daddy.' "Was that too weird," She asked self-consciously.

"No, it sounded nice," he said a giddy smile still plastered across his face as he extracted himself from Rory's grip and returned to the chocolate sauce.

"Ok, so what _was _the wedding stuff you wanted to talk to me about?"

"Actually it's about Jess," He began.

"What about him?" she asked trying to sound casual.

"Well, I thought you should know that Jess is going to be my best man and with you being your mom's maid of honor, I know that's going to be a little weird for you and for that I'm sorry. But I couldn't _not _include him, especially since he was always telling me when he lived here that I needed to own up to my feelings for your mom and he was the one who kind of kicked me in the ass and made me realize how much I was hurting your mom by keeping April away from her."

"It's ok, Luke. I get it. I always knew that when you and mom got married that Jess would be involved with the wedding. He's your family and I don't begrudge you wanting to have your family around you on your wedding day. If there's any weirdness or awkwardness, that's for me and Jess to deal with, not you."

"Thanks for understanding."

"Anytime, now let's get this cheesecake finished before Mom gets home. You know how much she craves her desserts, pregnant or not."

Luke laughed and agreed, while pregnancy had made Lorelai steer away from certain foods, it hadn't curbed her love for all things sweet.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Richard was following his wife in disbelief. "Emily, slow down. What the hell are we even doing here?"

"I told you, I made an appointment for us to look at this house together. I wanted you to see it so I could get your opinion."

"Yes, you told me about the appointment, but that was before Friday night when Luke made it clear that he didn't want our input into his and Lorelai's living conditions."

"Were we at the same dinner? Because I distinctly remember Luke agreeing to at least think about letting us buy them a house." She walked up the steps leading to the front porch and greeted the real estate agent there."Hello, Lorene, This is my husband, Richard. Richard, Lorene is the one who showed me this property the other day."

"How do you do?" He said out of sheer politeness, not really wanting to be there behind his daughter's back. Lorene led them into the house as he turned back to his wife and said, "Emily, I'm against this. We are not buying this house for them unless they agree to it."

Lorene looked uncomfortable, "How about I lever you to alone and let you look at the house at your own pace? I'll be outside. You can come find me if you need me."

"Who said anything about buying it?" Emily said. "I just want you to look at it. If you see what I see, then we can talk to Luke and Lorelai about it and see if they would like to at least look at it."

"I highly doubt they would. They were very specific last weekend about wanting to stay in Stars Hollow and this is Beacon Falls!"

"That's a technicality. It's right on the border of Stars Hollow so it would be close enough, besides I've looked at every house on the market in Stars Hollow and not one of them is good enough for them."

"That's for them to decide, not us."

"But this one, "Emily said, ignoring her husband's last comment. "I think this one would be absolutely perfect for them."

"I don't want Luke getting angry with us and accusing us of interfering again."

"Oh, yes, I know. The two of you had this big male-bonding experience yesterday," she said sarcastically. "That's another reason I want you to see this house, then maybe you can convince him that this is the perfect house for their family, whether we buy it for them or not, though I hope that he'll concede and let us give it to them as a wedding present."

"Don't think I don't know where you're going with this, Emily. You're hoping that I'll fall in love with this house too, and use what little bit of pull I've got with Luke, to talk him into letting us buy them the house."

"Well, what's the harm in that? Maybe he'll listen to you since the two of you have been spending so much time together."

"I'll look at the house, but I'm not guaranteeing that I will take up your habit of meddling in their lives."

"Thank you, Richard." She took her husband's hand. "Now, Come on, I want you to see the upstairs first," she said as she led him up the stairs and into the first room off the landing. "Now, this is the master bedroom. It's got a walk-in closet that Lorelai would love since she's obsessed with clothes and it's got a huge bathroom very much like the new bathroom they built in their current home and on the other side of the bathroom is another bedroom that would be perfect for a nursery. See how the two rooms are connected by the bathroom, then when the baby starts crying in the middle of the night, all they'd have to do is walk through the bathroom to get to the nursery."

"I can see where that would be convenient," Richard agreed.

"It's got three other bathrooms, each with their own bathroom, so Rory and April wouldn't have to share one if they were both here at the same time."

"Now, Emily, you're getting ahead of yourself. Luke told me that he an April's mother haven't even agreed yet to start having overnight visits with April."

"But it's only a matter of time before that happens. Luke is not a man who's going to let someone else dictate how much time he spends with his child. Besides weren't you the one who told me when Lorelai first started dating Luke that I wasn't thinking ahead?"

"I meant that in reference to the fact that you couldn't seem to see how serious she was about him. I did see it. She called me and begged me to call off my golf game with him, thinking that I would humiliate him. She'd never done that with any boyfriend she ever had. She was mad at me for the incident with Jason, yes, but this was different."

"Why didn't you ever say anything then?"

"I tried to, Emily, but you and I weren't exactly on the best of terms at the time, if you recall."

"I remember. God, we were idiots."

"Yes, we were. Now show me the rest of the house."

Emily led her husband through room after room, while he tried to visualize everything Emily saw in the house. He was impressed with the large library which they both agreed the girls would love as they were both voracious readers. He was equally impressed with the kitchen and its large work area that he knew Luke would enjoy cooking for his family in, a breakfast nook in the corner, lots of storage space for all of his kitchen gadgets and an island in the middle with even more storage space. They walked around the property where she showed him the stables and he knew that Lorelai would love the idea of being able to keep horses as she adored the two she had at the Dragonfly. He imagined Luke playing baseball with his children in the large backyard or teaching them to fish at the small pond on the property, Lorelai teaching them to ride and Rory and April sharing their love of books on a warm day on the sun porch.

"Well, what do you think, Mr. Gilmore?" Lorene asked when they returned to where they'd left her.

"I think I need to have another talk with my son-in-law," He said looking at his wife who was so happy that she didn't even point out to him that Luke wasn't their son-in-law quite yet.

TBC


	25. Chapter 25

Lorelai and April arrived at the crap shack to find Luke at the sink draining pasta into a colander and Rory at the counter chopping vegetables for a salad.

"Something smells good in here," Lorelai said as she walked to Luke and greeted him with a kiss.

"Spaghetti and meatballs," Luke said.

"With your homemade sauce?"

"Is there any other kind?" he quipped reminding him of their previous debate regarding jarred spaghetti sauce.

"Can I help?" April asked.

"You can check the garlic bread in the oven," her father said. "It should be just about done."

"You got it," April said as she reached for an oven mitt to do just that.

"I wanna help too," Lorelai said walking to her daughter. "Give me another knife and I'll help you with the vegetables."

"I don't need any help," Rory said "I'm almost done and it's not like I would trust you with a knife anyway,"

Luke laughed at Rory's jibe and said, "If you wanna help, why don't you help by setting the table?"

"That's always my job," Lorelai whined, but walked to the cabinet and starting removing dishes.

"And you're good at it. You've never broken a dish yet. You should go with your strengths," Luke said as he dumped the spaghetti into a serving dish and reached around April for the sauce on the stove.

"The bread's done, Dad," April said as she pulled the pan from the oven and set it on the stove.

"Here, April, "Rory said handing April a knife from the drawer in front of her. "You can cut it and get it ready to serve. The bread basket's in the cabinet above your head."

"Hey, how come the twelve year old gets a knife and I don't?"Lorelai questioned.

"Because the twelve year old knows how to cook and you don't," Luke said. "She's more careful in the kitchen than you are."

"It's a good thing you're so cute or I wouldn't let you get away with being this mean to me."

"You'll find a way to get me back, I know. You always do."

"Oh, yes, Mister, there _will _be payback," Lorelai said with a wicked grin as she finished setting the table.

"I'll be looking forward to it," he said with a smile as he leaned over her to set the spaghetti on the table, sliding his empty hand around her waist. She turned her head slightly and kissed him sweetly.

"Hey! None of that in the kitchen," Rory said in a mocking tone.

"I'm with her," April said with a giggle as she set the bread basket on the table.

"This is your fault, April," she teased.

"How is it _my _fault that you two can't keep your hands off each other?"

"Well, because of your geniusness we're not gonna see each other for ten days after tonight, so we gotta try to squeeze in all the lovin' we can."

Rory laughed, "Is 'geniusness' even a word?" she said as she added the salad bowl to the table.

"You're the English major," April said. "You should know."

"Yeah, Rory," Her mother agreed. "Show us what that Yale education is teaching you."

"I'm thinking not," Rory said.

Lorelai sniffed and wiped away an imaginary tear, "So proud," she said earning her a swat with a dishtowel from her daughter.

"Well, just so you know, "April said with a smile. "There's no way I'm gonna start dumbing myself down just so you can having more snogging time with my dad."

"Snogging? That sounds a little dirty," Lorelai giggled, leaving Luke shaking his head.

"I think we're ready to eat. Everything's on the table," Luke said trying to steer Lorelai away from dirty topics, as they all sat around the table and began digging in.

"It's a British term for kissing or cuddling," Rory explained.

"Hey, I know what it means. I've read my _Harry Potter,_" Lorelai said indignantly. "You two may be the John Nashes of the family, but I still know some stuff."

April looked at Rory and joked, "Is that her way of saying we're paranoid schizophrenics?"

"That's what it sounds like to me," Rory agreed joining in the teasing of her mother.

"Or maybe she thinks we want to travel to Europe, renounce our US citizenship and beg for political asylum."

"Ok, you lost me on that one. I don't remember that from the movie."

"That's not from the movie," April explained. "That's from the biography that the movie was based on. You haven't read it?"

"I tried, "Rory said, "But when it started detailing some of his math theories, I have to confess, I got a little lost and stopped reading."

"Well, you should try again. It's definitely worth a read. The movie left out so much of his life and the book gives you so much more. The movie was actually semi-fictional."

"Speaking of getting a little lost, "Luke interjected, looking at Lorelai. "Are you getting any of this or are you feeling like a complete dunce too?"

"They lost me at 'paranoid schizophrenics,'" Lorelai admitted. "I just remember the movie with Russell Crowe. It sucks having kids smarter than you are."

"Talking about kids reminds me, Mom," Rory said."Are you feeling ok? I know you were making special friends with the toilet again this morning. My new brother or sister still making you sick?"

"It comes and goes. Right now, I'm doing ok. While we're on the subject…" she said with a meaningful glance toward Luke who nodded back,"…there's something we've been wanting to tell the two of you, but we wanted to wait until we were all together to do it." She reached for Luke's hand for support who squeezed hers reassuringly.

"Sounds serious, Lorelai," April said.

"It is," Luke said. "It's in regards to some news we got earlier this week regarding this pregnancy."

"Is everything ok?" Rory asked looking a little worried. "Is there something wrong with the baby?"

"No, Sweets. Everything's fine," Lorelai answered, easing her daughter's concerns. She took a deep breath and continued. "It's just that the baby isn't just _one _baby. It's two."

Rory flew out of her seat and hugged her mother screaming,"Oh my God! You're having twins!"

April reacted similarly hugging both her father and her future step-mother. "I can't believe this! I'm gonna have two new siblings at once! This is so cool!"

When all the hugging was done and the girls has returned to their seats, Luke asked, "So, you're both really ok with this?"

"Well, I can't speak for Rory, but I'm ok with it. I've always wanted to be part of a real family."

"I'm cool, too, Luke. I mean come on, Mom dreamed about having twins with you years ago."

"Ooh, maybe I'm psychic," Lorelai joked. "Before you know it, I'll start having prophetic dreams like Buffy."

"You are _not _psychic," Luke said. "If you were, you would never have doubted my desire to marry you."

"Ugh," Rory groaned. "Don't start getting all sappy, now."

"Get used to it, Kid. Before you know we'll be newlyweds and all sappy all the time."

"Gross," April said. "I just had a thought, Dad. As happy as I am about the twins, two babies are going to be a lot of work. With the twins and the diner, that means you probably won't have as much time for our visits."

"Don't say that, April. Whatever I have to do, I will. If I have to hire a little more help and spend a little less time at the diner, that's what I'll do. That's the nice thing about owning your own business. You can make up your own hours. My family is always going to come first and _you _are my family. That goes for you too, Rory."

"Actually," Lorelai added. "We're going to need a lot of help from you guys once these two make their appearance in the world. They'll need lots of big sisterly love and attention from both of you."

"You got it," Rory said. "Just don't think I'm sharing my room. It's bad enough sharing space with Paris and Doyle."

"Do _not _get me started on Paris," Luke said. "Do you know that when you left the room the other day she started spouting all these statistics at me on the divorce rate and how marriages that begin with premarital pregnancy are more likely to end in divorce and that coupled with the fact that I've already been divorced once is a sure sign that we won't last?"

"So Paris has already got us divorced before we even get married?' Lorelai said. "I wonder if it's too late to take back her invitation to the wedding."

"And have your mother yell at us for lack of proper etiquette? I think not," Luke replied with a laugh.

"Have you guys thought anymore about the house thing she was talking about the other night?" April asked. "I mean, this place is great, but she kind of made a good point about it not being big enough, especially now that you know you're having twins."

"We talked about that a little last night," Luke answered. "We're thinking that when you and I get back, we might take a look at some of the houses she looked at, just to see what's out there."

"Does that mean you might sell this house?"Rory questioned apprehensively. She didn't live there full time anymore, but it was still her home.

"It's a possibility," her mother said. "Or we might rent it out or we might just keep it for you if you want it. There are a lot of options and we want to include you in any decisions we make. This is your house too," she added trying to reassure her daughter that she understood that whatever decision they made affected her as well.

"Who knows?" Luke said. "Once we start looking at houses we may find one with a room for you that's big enough for both you and your huge book collection."

"My book collection's not _that _huge."

"_Please_, you've got more books in your dresser than you do clothes," Lorelai said.

"That's true," Rory agreed with a laugh. "Maybe you could find a house that's got a separate library. That would be cool. Then my books could have a home of their own, making more room for all the new clothes you bought me yesterday." She still wasn't sure how she felt about the possibility of not calling the crap shack home anymore, but she could also see the positive side of having a bigger house for their bigger family. While her parents had mentioned the idea of expanding their current home, she wasn't sure if that would be a good idea, knowing that construction would take months and be likely to inflict a lot of unneeded stress on her pregnant mother.

"Well, I'm on board with whatever you decide," April said. "It's not like I live with you guys, anyway." While they'd made some progress toward connecting as a family, she was still a little unsure of where she fit in. She had wanted to bring up the idea of weekend visits with her dad to her mom as she had several friends with divorced parents who did the 'every other weekend' thing and it worked out for them, but she was still a little leery about it. She didn't want this to be another thing that would freak her mom out and cause another fight, plus she wasn't sure if it was something that her dad even wanted since he had this whole other life with Lorelai.

Lorelai sensed a little sadness in April's statement. "Wherever we decide to live, we'll make sure that you have a space of your own there," she said. "You're family too, even if you don't live with us."

"Maybe when we get back, we can set up a date for all of us to go house hunting together," Luke suggested. "That way we can get an opinion from both of you from the start."

"That sounds good to me," April said.

"I'm in," Rory said.

"Me too," Lorelai chimed in.

They finished their meal and had dessert in the living room while watching _A Beautiful Mind _since their dinner conversation had brought it up, the four of them breaking every one of Lorelai's movie night rules as they chatted about John Nash's battle with schizophrenia and Jennifer Connelly's Oscar-winning performance as his distraught wife with April pointing out the differences between the movie and the book.

After Rory had left to go back to New Haven and Anna had arrived to take April back to Woodbridge, Luke and Lorelai lay cuddled in bed just relaxing together.

"Well, the twin announcement went better than I expected," Lorelai commented as she reflected on the events of the evening.

"Yeah, I was surprised," her fiancé agreed. "I was sure it would be a lot more awkward than it was, especially where April's concerned. We're still just getting to know each other. I was afraid she'd think that with two babies on the way that I wouldn't be there for her as much."

"She _was _a little worried about it," she reminded him. "But you did an amazing job of reassuring her that you're going to be there for _all _of your children."

"I guess," he said.

"And this trip will be good for the two of you. You'll get to meet all her friends and some of her teachers. I just can't imagine sleeping in this bed for a week and half without you in it. It's going to be so cold and lonely without you spooned up beside me every night. I can't believe you're leaving tomorrow already."

"Bright and early," he said

"Then I guess I'd better let you get some sleep," she said as she kissed him and started to roll over onto her side."

He reached for her and pulled her back to face him. "Or I could give you something to remember me by while I'm gone," he said as he captured her lips with his own in a passionate kiss that left her breathless.

"Yeah, I like that idea much better, " she said as she wrapped her arms around him and let him know just how much she was going to miss him.


	26. Chapter 26

AN: For this chapter, I will be including quite a bit of dialogue from "The Real Paul Anka" as it's necessary for the progression of the story in terms of characterization. I'll be adding some stuff to the dialogue for dramatic effect. Please bear with me through this as there is a point to it. Thanks once again to everyone who's been reading and reviewing. I doubt I'd have had the motivation to keep this going without all of the wonderful encouragement I've been getting.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Monday morning Luke had the truck packed up and was making a stop at the diner to drop Lorelai off for breakfast and to make one final check on Caesar before departing. It was a good thing too, because Caesar was having a freak out.

"Okay, day six. If your cell dies? Is there a phone in Gettysburg that I can reach you at?" He asked nervously.

"Yeah, the one Grant used to call Lincoln. The number's in the book," Luke replied dryly inciting a giggle form Lorelai.

"Oh, good, he's a funny man today! He's Jerry Lewis," Caesar said with a hint of panic in his voice.

"Caesar, calm down, you're going to do great," Lorelai reassured him. "You're the best cook Luke's ever had. You so make better pancakes than he does."

"True."

"No he doesn't!" Luke said indignantly.

"You just have to be confident," Lorelai said, still trying to encourage him.

"It's just that when I'm working the grill, sometimes I get a locked elbow. And Luke's the only one who knows how to rub it to get it working again," Caesar explained.

"He rubs your elbow?" Lorelai asked with a bemused look on her face aimed at Luke.

"It's like a sports injury, it's okay if it's sports," Luke defended himself, then turned to Caesar and said, "You want to step back about three feet so I can say goodbye to my girl?"

"Fine," Caesar said in a huff and he stepped back and turned around to give them a moment.

Luke took Lorelai in his arms and said,"You gonna miss me?" he asked with a mischievous grin.

"Especially if my elbow hurts," she replied with a smile.

"I'm going to call you a lot."

"Same here."

"You know, I was happy when she asked me but now it just struck me. I'm going to spend ten days with a bus full of teenagers."

"I think you're ready." Lorelai reflected on all the time they'd spent with April lately and realized that he was becoming a lot more comfortable with his new role as a father. She couldn't wait to see him with their children.

They shared a lingering kiss. "Thanks for seeing me off. You take care of yourself while I'm gone and these two," he said as he lightly brushed his hand across her stomach.

"Your pancakes are better, by the way."

"Thanks," he said as he headed to the truck.

Caesar turned around and said with a little more confidence, "Don't worry, Luke, just a momentary panic. I'm going to be fine, I promise."

"Good. Now go back in there and reclaim your turf," Like said pointing to the diner.

"Reclaim my turf?" He looked back into the diner where Kirk is pouring coffee for the customers and acting like he runs the place. "Kirk!" He yelled as he ran back inside.

Luke waved goodbye to Lorelai and got into the truck. She waved back and turned to watch the scene in the diner as Caesar started yelling and snatched the hairnet off Kirk's head and ran away with it.

"That's my favorite hairnet," Kirk yelled and started chasing him.

Lorelai watched as they chased each other around the diner. Her amusement only lasted a moment though as it hit her she wouldn't be seeing Luke for ten days. She placed her hand on her stomach where his had been only a moment ago and already missed the warmth of him being near. She sighed, and said to her unborn children, "Come on, Kids. Let's go get some breakfast." She walked into the diner just as Caesar was chasing Kirk out the door.

"Stay out of here!" He yelled a Kirk's retreating form. "I'm in charge!"

Lorelai couldn't help but laugh and when Caesar walked back in she said, "You sure showed him who's boss."

"Damn straight!"

"So, Boss, can I get some coffee?"

"Sure, decaf."

"Caesar, come on!"

"No! The boss said no coffee for you!"

"But he's not here. You're the boss now!"

"Only until he gets back and I'm not taking the chance that he'll come back here and fire me if he finds out I gave you the real stuff. He's determined that kid of yours is gonna come out healthy and not caffeine-addicted."

"Fine, hit me with the decaf," she said with a sigh. She smiled a little though, knowing that though Luke wasn't there, he was still looking after his children.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Rory was just about to sit at her desk in the newsroom after her fruit fly conversation with Paris when Logan approached her.

"Hey, Chief," he said awkwardly. "Got a minute?"

"Um, a minute," she replied just as awkwardly.

"I'm a little confused about something," He was confused about a lot of somethings, like why she wouldn't return his phone calls, and why she moved back in with him after their talk only to move out two days later after spending the weekend with her mom.

"How can I help?"She asked tentatively, not really wanting to talk to him, but knowing she'd have to if it was regarding the paper.

"I was working on the piece about textbook prices. You assigned it to me a couple of weeks ago? "

"Uh-huh."

"It wasn't going to earn me my Pulitzer, but I put a lot of work into it and I just checked the server and noticed that a piece on the same topic's been written."

"Yes, it has been," she said noncommittally.

"Our wires get crossed?"

"Nope, "Yes_,_ she thought. _I thought we were in a relationship and you didn't._

"Who wrote it?"

"I did," she said smugly.

"Why?"

"It's topical. It affects every student. It's an important story; I wanted to be sure that it would get done."

"It wasn't due for two more days.

"I didn't think you'd meet the deadline," _It's not like you're good at keeping promises,_ she added to herself.

"Based on what?"

"Based on past performance," she said unable to resist one more allusion to the fact that she wasn't going to put up with his philandering ways.

"Past performance is no indication of future performance," he said hoping that she'd get his meaning.

"Wise men call that a sucker's maxim," they both knew they weren't talking about the paper anymore. She couldn't believe that he was standing here in front of her and actually expecting her to trust him again.

"I did a lot of research on this thing. I interviewed textbook publishers, I interviewed authors, I was going to get more quotes from students."

"I know. I used your research. A lot of it came in handy."

"Really?" He said sarcastically.

"The stuff that I could make sense out of."

"Good," he said in an even more sarcastic tone.

"Look, you'll get your byline if that's what this is about."

"You know that's not what this is about!"

"I thought I was doing you a favor!"

"Everyone knew I was assigned that piece and now they know it's been taken away from me,"

"Logan, I'm sorry," she lied. She wasn't a bit sorry. Maybe it was petty, but she'd done it on purpose to humiliate him, just like she'd been humiliated at Honor's wedding. "It's as you said. Our wires got crossed, it happens, let's move on," knowing that he would get what moving on really meant to her.

"Okay. We'll move on." He walked away, but stopped at Paris's desk, holding up the jar of flies. "And what's with this?"

"Keep walking, whitey," Paris said sardonically.

"You let fruit flies in the newsroom?"

"It's not hurting anybody," Rory said defensively.

"It's disgusting."

"I just need five more minutes," Paris said.

"Don't rush, Paris," Rory said glaring at Logan. "The fruit flies are not hurting anybody, and Paris is working on something that I'm waiting on. I would prefer it if she weren't interrupted. "

"Sorry, Paris," he said. "Come on, Ace," he said pleadingly.

"Don't call me that! And don't call me 'Chief' anymore either. I don't want to hear anymore cutesy nicknames from you. My name is Rory, No, wait, scratch that, it's Lorelai to you. Only people that are close to me call me Rory."

"Lorelai? What the hell are you talking about? Nobody ever calls you Lorelai."

"My mother called me Lorelai the day I was born. It's my name, so you better get used to it"

"Fine, _Lorelai,_" he said mockingly as he stormed out of the newsroom.

Rory sat down at her desk and was just about to get back to work when she heard her name again.

"Lorelai, wow, that was a little harsh."

Rory looked up to see her father standing there with a carryout drink tray in his hand. "Great, like there's not enough drama in the newsroom as it is."

"Ouch!" Christopher said. "I feel like I should be wearing a parka and snow boots in here. I guess it's good thing I brought coffee to ward off the iciness." He pulled a to go cup out of its holder and handed it to her.

"What are you doing here, Dad?" Taking the proffered cup from him.

"I just thought I'd come by and see my kid in action. I've never been in a newsroom before and I thought it would be kind of cool to see my daughter, the big editor at work."

"Well, you should have called first. I'm busy."

"So I see," He said, reflecting on the scene he'd just witnessed between her and Logan. "I'm guessing that was about more than just the paper."

"Of course it was about more than the paper," Paris butted in. "That stupid little blueblood Hugh Hefner wannabe broke your daughter's heart."

"I've got this covered, Paris. Thanks."

"Ok, I just wanted to give you this anyway," she said handing her a printout of her article.

"Thanks, so the revolting bugs are leaving the newsroom now?"

"Yep, I'll see you at home, Rory," Paris said as she gathered up her stuff including aforementioned jar of fruit flies and headed out.

"Home?" Christopher questioned. "You're living with Paris again?"

"Yep," Rory said, not offering any further information to her absentee father.

"So you moved out of Logan's place?" Christopher tried again hoping his daughter would bend and give him just a little insight into her life.

"Yep," she said again. She wasn't going to volunteer any information about herself until her father could at least start to show that he had some interest in having it.

"When did that happen?"

"Monday," she stated still not willing to concede.

"Today's Monday," he said.

"_Last _Monday,"

"Well, at least I got more than a one word answer that time. That's progress," Christopher said trying to make light of a tense situation.

Rory rose from her chair and faced her father. "What the hell do you want from me, Dad? I mean seriously, what do you want?"

"I just want to be a part of my kid's life."

"Then maybe you should start acting like it. You admitted that you didn't really know me, and you _said _you wanted to change that, but then a week goes by and I don't hear from you, not a phone call, not an email, not even a smoke signal, and then all of a sudden you just show up here unannounced and act like everything's ok and we're just suddenly gonna have this great father-daughter bonding experience. Well, I'm sorry, but it doesn't work that way."

"I'm trying, Rory. What am I supposed to do?"

"Here's a start, when I say 'Let's make a plan to do something next week,' you pick up the phone and we make a plan to do something that week."

"The phone works both ways, Kiddo."

"Not with you, it doesn't. I'm tired of being the one to call you to make plans. I'm tired of having to beg for a little attention from my father. I left the door open for you to make the next move and you never did."

"Sure, I did. I'm here now, aren't I?"

"You always do that! You just show up unexpectedly. You showed up at _Luke's _and made a scene, then you showed up at the house and put Mom in a very awkward position with Luke."

"We're back to him again," he said in a huff. "If everything you said is true about all the stuff he's done for you, how the hell am I supposed to compete with that?"

"It's not supposed to be about competing with Luke. It's supposed to be about you getting to know me for me, so leave him out of it."

"How can I when you said yourself that he's got that place in your heart that should've been mine?'

"He earned it and that's something you can't ever get back." She looked around the newsroom at all the faces staring at her and realized this wasn't the place or time for this. She took and deep breath to calm herself and said, "Look, Dad, I can't do this. Not here, Not now. If you really want to spend time with me, call me later and we'll make a plan to do something together. Right now, I have a paper to get out and I need to focus."

"Fine, I'll just get out of your hair then. Enjoy the coffee," He said and like Logan before him stormed out of the room.

Rory turned to the newsroom and all the staffers that were staring at her. "Hey, people! Get back to work! The paper's not gonna put itself out.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

That evening after Christopher had sent the nanny home and put Gigi to bed, he picked up the mail that had arrived that day and started thumbing through it until he came across a thick white envelope with a Stars Hollow postmark on it. He dropped all the other mail and ripped the envelope open, knowing what was inside. He felt a twinge of pain as he read:

_Lorelai Victoria Gilmore_

_and_

_Lucas William Danes_

_Request the honor of your presence _

_as they celebrate their marriage _

He dropped the invitation on the floor unable to read anymore.

TBC


	27. Chapter 27

April was feeling a little uncomfortable with the way her dad had been hovering around her all day. She was glad that he was taking an interest, but at the same time it was a little disconcerting having him hanging out with her friends while the other parents were off by themselves. She didn't want to hurt his feelings, but she had to say something.

"Dad, could we talk for a sec?"

"Sure," he said wondering by the tone in his daughter's voice if he was doing something wrong as he'd never done this before. He followed her to a different table than the one her friends were sitting at. "What's up?"

"You know Freddy?" She said a little hesitantly.

"Yeah, good kid," Luke said recalling the conversation they'd had about baseball on the bus.

"Well, I…uh…I like him."

"Oh. Well, I like him too. He seems less insane than the others," he said. He was trying to be patient but being around a large group of kids wasn't exactly his thing. He remembered what a disaster his dinner with the Stars Hollow Middle School girls' soccer team had been. He was hoping to do better this time. He was going to have to get used to it now that he was a father to April and about to be a father again to two more kids.

"I don't mean 'like him', the way you like him," she said hoping she wouldn't have to go any further for her dad to catch her meaning. "I hope," she added for emphasis.

"You've known him longer," Luke stated point blank.

"And I'm a girl," she said nothing that her dad was still clueless.

"I know that," he said wondering why she felt the need to point that out.

"And he's a boy..." she said, hinting to her unaware father what she was getting at.

"I know that too." He looked at his daughter who was nodding and smiling, and grasped her meaning finally. "Oh! You _like _him!" He said a little too loudly.

"Shh!"

"Sorry," he said now realizing that he might have embarrassed her.

"I am not quite ready to proclaim it to the world just yet," she explained, hoping that her dad's outburst hadn't done just that.

"Are you old enough to like a boy?" He asked, not sure how he felt about his young daughter taking an interest in boys.

"I'm not sure."

"I'll have to look it up in a book, see whether you're supposed to like boys yet or not."

"Well, it's a fact either which way," she said matter-of-factly, whether the books said she was old enough or not, she _did _like him.

"Okay, so, what do you want me to do?"

"For starters, it would help if you stopped calling him Betty."

"Right," he agreed.

"And you sitting next to me all the time is kind of getting in the way."

"Oh, jeez, I didn't realize."

"I know, you're pretty oblivious, which is strange to me when you consider that you're in a serious relationship yourself."

"That's different. Lorelai and I are already a couple. We don't have to worry about people getting in the way." He was still a little lost because April hadn't been acting like she liked this boy. He turned to look at the kid and said "It seems like Freddy-"

"Don't look at him!" April said cutting him off mid-sentence.

"Sorry! It just seems like you pay less attention to Freddy than any of the other boys." It didn't make sense. If she liked him why didn't she indicate to him that she liked him, not that he was in a hurry for his twelve year old daughter to start dating. He'd just as soon have her wait until he was dead and buried so he wouldn't have to see her get her heart broken like he had Rory.

"It's because I like him," she clarified.

"You like him, so you ignore him?"

"That's the way it works!"

"But you're always palling around with Kevin. You seem like you like him more."

"Ugh! Kevin makes me sick," she said with a grimace.

"I'm confused," he said shaking his head.

"You're over-thinking this."

"I must be," he said turning to look at the boy his little girl liked again and wondered if he'd someday have to kick his ass.

"Don't look at him!"

"I'm sorry," he said with a sigh. "I guess I shouldn't be sitting next to you, then, huh?"

"Maybe not," she agreed.

"Guess I'll go sit with the parents," he said, not wanting to cramp her style.

"I think that's a good idea."

"Okay. Well, you want to go back together, or should we stagger it a little?" He was looking for any kind of insight into what he was supposed to do next.

"Give me a four second head start," she said as she got up.

"You got it," he said and sighed again. He'd thought he was getting the hang of this fatherhood thing, but now he realized how far he still had to go.

April began to walk back to her friends, hesitated then walked back to her dad, hoping that she hadn't hurt his feelings. She leaned down and kissed him on his stubbly cheek and said, "Thanks for understanding." She then rejoined her friends while Luke got up and went to join the other parents while still keeping a watchful eye April and the boy she liked. He touched the place on his cheek where she'd kissed him and smiled.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Rory sat awkwardly with her dad at the kitchen table in her apartment on Wednesday evening, not quite knowing what to say. True to his word, he'd actually called her, the day after the scene in the newsroom and made plans to have dinner with her and try to talk. She was surprised, but she agreed, hoping that this wasn't going to be another disappointment. She'd suggested they have dinner at her place rather than going out somewhere because if things turned out badly, she didn't want there to be yet another scene created in a public place. She'd even offered to cook. They'd made it through dinner where Rory had answered all of his questions about her break-up with Logan and he'd filled her in on the progress he'd made with Gigi's temper tantrums. They were now working their way through dessert.

"So, this is really good cheesecake," Christopher said. "Where'd you learn to make this?"

She hesitated, knowing her dad wouldn't want to hear the answer,"Um, Luke taught me. It's his recipe, actually."

Christopher nearly choked on the bite of cheesecake he'd just taken. He reached for his drink and forced it down. His reaction was not lost on Rory. "Luke, huh?"

"Yeah. I'm sorry, Dad. I know this is weird for you. It's just that I only recently started learning to cook and I'm not real comfortable with trying new recipes just yet. This is one that I already knew and it didn't kill any of us at the house over the weekend so I thought I'd try it again." The truth was she was half hoping the subject would come up. She knew her dad would appreciate a good cheesecake, but she also wondered if he'd still eat it knowing it was Luke's recipe. She thought he'd probably decide to be done with it just because of that even though she was the one who made it.

"I guess I need to get over this," he said as he took another bit of the dessert. "I mean, if I want to be a real part of your life."

"Yes, you do and you have to accept that no matter what happens between you and me, I'm always gonna have Luke in my life."

"You know, I got an invitation to the wedding the other day."

"Really?" she said. She was surprised. She hadn't expected her dad to be sent an invite to her mother's wedding. She wondered if Luke had suggested it as a peace offering since he was trying to be more tolerant of her father. That seemed like the kind of unselfish thing he would to just to keep the peace, even though he may not personally want him there. She didn't think it would've been her mother with her knowing how uncomfortable it would make Luke. Then she thought maybe it was her grandmother at work since she was handling the guest list and the seating charts. She hoped not because that would most likely mean that she'd done it without her mother and future step-father's knowledge. She made a mental note to get to the bottom of this. "So did you RSVP?"

"Yeah, I did."

"Why?" she questioned, her defenses up again. "You're not planning on making some big scene at the wedding to try to stop it from happening, are you?'

"No, Rory, I swear. I just want your mom to be happy."

"Well, she is happy and she wouldn't be if you ruined things between her and Luke again."

"I don't want to ruin things between her and Luke. I got a glimpse of just how happy she is with him when I was leaving your house last weekend."

"Good, then don't go to the wedding. I don't even know why you were invited,

"Rory…"

"I mean it, Dad! Stay away! You've had your chance with Mom! In fact you've had more chances than you ever should have and you blew every one of them!"

"Don't you think I know that? I know that I screwed things up with your mom so bad that I can never fix them. But that's not why I'm here. I'm not sitting here eating Luke's cheesecake because I'm looking for another chance with her. I'm here because I'm hoping for another chance to fix what I screwed up with you."

"OK," Rory said quietly.

"Ok? What does that mean, ok?"

"It means that I believe you, but here's the deal, Dad. I'm afraid to trust you again. You've made me so many promises that you haven't kept. If I trust you now, how do I know that you won't just break my heart again tomorrow?"

"I guess you don't but if you give me a chance, I promise to try to make it up to you. By the way, this is _really _good cheesecake."

"Thanks," Rory said with a smile. "I made it myself."

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Lorelai stood in her bedroom staring at the wedding dress on the mannequin, shaking her head. She'd walked around it several times after Lane had begged her to destroy it trying to examine it from every angle to see if she could salvage something decent out of it that would be flattering to Lane's petite figure without making Mrs. Kim go nuts. She sighed as she thought about he own wedding dress tucked safely away in the closet she shared with Luke, anxious for the day she'd be able to wear it in front of everyone and proudly proclaim her love for the man who'd captured her heart. She missed him terribly even though he'd called her numerous times during the day to keep her up to date on how the trip was going and to find out how she was feeling and if his unborn children were still making her sick. In addition, he'd called at 9:30 both Monday and Tuesday night when it was lights out time for the kids and he had nothing to do but sit and think, both of those conversations starting out sweet and then turning a little racy as he told her all the things he missed about being in their bed and all the things he planned on doing to her when he got home. This was only the third day he'd been gone, but already the loneliness was unbearable. They'd made so progress working on their issues in the previous week, that she desperately hoped this time apart wouldn't undo. As if on cue her cell phone rang, and she hastily reached for it.

"Hello?" she said.

"Hi," Luke said in his low sexy voice that sent chills up her spine. "What are you wearing?"

She giggled as she sat down on the bed and said, "Not much, just one of the goodies I bought for our honeymoon that you haven't seen yet." It wasn't true but since he seemed in the mood to go straight to the good stuff, she could give him a good visual and play along.

"Describe it to me," he said.

"It's black and lacy and it's got a slit all the way up the side that really shows off my legs," she said teasing him.

"That sounds so sexy. I wish I was there to see it.

"What would you do if you were?" she said seductively.

Luke began to describe every detail of what he would do with her while she laid on the bed and acted out the actions he described, longing for him to be there in person to act them out himself. She in turn related all the naughty things she wanted to do with him and she knew he was doing the same, touching himself and wishing it was her touching him.

"God, I miss you," he said when they were both spent, still trying to catch his breath.

"I miss you, too, "she said equally breathless. "So, how was your day?"

"It was ok. I found out a little bit of disturbing news about April today though."

"Really?" she sat up, a little alarmed. "What kind of news?'

"She has a crush on a boy that's on her math team."

"Oh, is that all?"

"What do you mean, 'is that all'? She's only twelve. Isn't that too young for her to be taking an interest in boys?"

"Look who you're asking. I was having sex at fifteen and giving birth at sixteen."

"That's it! She's so getting locked in her room until she's forty!"

Lorelai laughed and said,"Relax, Babe. April is a good kid with a good head on her shoulders and not at all likely to follow in her future step-mother's footsteps."

"I hope you're right. Don't get me wrong, I love Rory and I know she wouldn't be here if it weren't for the fact that you got pregnant so young, but I don't want that for April. She's got a bright future and I don't want to see her do anything to mess that up."

"I know, Hon, but she is almost a teenager. She was bound to start liking boys eventually."

"But why did have to be so soon?"

"It only feels soon because she hasn't been in your life that long. Besides, I don't think you have anything to worry about yet. I remember well, how pre-teen crushes are. He probably hasn't got a clue that she likes him and she probably acts like she hates his guts when she's around him to avoid letting him know that she likes him."

Luke laughed when he realized that Lorelai was right. "You're right about that. She is kind of avoiding him."

"So, tell me about the boy. Is he cute?"

"How would I know? I have no idea how girls gauge a boy's cuteness. I do know that he seems like a pretty cool kid and he's not quite as hyper as the other kids on this trip and he's a Red Sox fan so big plus there."

"So you had a bonding moment with your daughter's would-be boyfriend?"

"Yeah, apparently too much because she took me aside today to talk to me about it, telling me that I was hanging with her too much in front of her friends and she banished me to the parents table." Lorelai laughed again. "I'm glad you find this so amusing," he said gruffly.

"I'm not laughing at you, Babe. I'm just reminiscing about when Rory was that age and I used to go on field trips with her. As close as she and I are, she still didn't want me hovering around her too much around her friends."

"You know, when we were on the bus later and I handed her her sweater to make sure she had it in case she needed it, I heard her say to her friends that I'm totally overprotective."

"That's a good thing. You just want to make sure that your kid is safe. There's nothing wrong with that." She knew he'd be that way with all of his children. The twins weren't even born yet, and he was already insanely protective of them, leaving a standing order for Caesar and Lane that she wasn't to have real coffee. "Although, you could ease up on your coffee mandate," she added. "The doctor did say that I could have up to three cups a day."

"When have you ever limited yourself to three cups a day? Better to just stick with the decaf, that way I know you're not overdoing it. Speaking of the doctor how'd your appointment got today?"

"It went fine. He's a little concerned that I've actually lost a pound this week but he did say that it's not necessarily something to worry about since I've had as much morning sickness as I have. He wants me to go back next week. He did say though that the kids seem to be doing fine."

"I'm sorry that I can't be there for you. That'll be two appointments I've missed."

"It's ok, Luke. I understand." She missed him, but she understood.

"I don't know. Maybe your dad was right. Maybe I should've stayed home with you instead of going on this trip. I _did _promise you that I was going to be there for you every step of the way. And now I feel like a jerk for missing this appointment and the next one. I want so much to be able to be there for all of my kids at the same time."

"Don't. I don't want you feeling bad for taking time to be with your kid. As much as I miss you, this is a huge deal in April's life and you should be there for her. Besides, it's not like these two are going to remember or even be aware that daddy wasn't there when they were the size of a peanut."

"I guess," he said, still unsure. "I just don't want to be one of those dads whose kids grow up to hate him and tell their therapists all about how daddy wasn't there enough and that's why they turned out to be neurotic."

"There's a good chance our kids will turn out to be neurotic just having me as a mother," she pointed out.

"You make a good point, there," he said with a laugh.

"Hey! You weren't supposed to agree with me!"

He laughed again and said, "Did you honestly think I was going to argue with you on that one? You named my toolbox, for crying out loud!"

"And your tool," she said suggestively.

"I remember," he said in that low gravelly voice that drove her crazy when they were alone.

"You just keep remembering when you're alone in that crappy motel bed and be thinking about all the dirty things I wanna do to you when you're back in ours."

"I will," he said. "You have no idea how much I've been thinking of you since I've been here."

"I think I can imagine. I can't stop thinking about you either, and not just the naked parts, although I do like you naked quite a lot."

"You're not so bad yourself."

"Just wait a couple of months when I start getting huge and you'll be repulsed by me."

"Never gonna' happen. I could never be repulsed by you, your revolting eating habits, yes, but not you."

"Just wait until I'm big enough to squash you, my friend, then you'll see what I'm talking about."

"You're crazy. I'll still be just as nuts about you as I am now," he said reassuringly. The truth was as crazy as it sounded, he couldn't wait until she started showing, her belly swollen with his kids, a reminder to the world of their love for each other.

"I'm pretty nuts about you too," she replied.

"Good, but I should get going. We've got a full agenda tomorrow, so I should get some sleep."

"Same time tomorrow night?"

"Yep, sweet dreams," he said.

"They will be with you in them. You've given me a lot to dream about tonight," she said. She disconnected the call and rolled over onto his side of the bed, laying her head on his pillow where she fell into a peaceful sleep inhaling his scent and dreaming of their future, Mrs. Kim's unsightly wedding dress temporarily forgotten.

TBC


	28. Chapter 28

Richard and Emily were sitting at their dining room table Thursday morning, Richard reading the morning paper with his breakfast while Emily was going through the large stack of RSVP cards she'd picked up from the printer in Stars Hollow the day before.

"I can't believe how many people from Stars Hollow have already returned their RSVP cards," she commented as she started checking names off the guest list.

"What I can't believe is that you're devoting so much of your time to this," her husband replied momentarily looking up from his newspaper. "You've been obsessively talking about nothing but RSVPs and seating charts since the invitations were sent out."

"Lorelai asked for my help and I'm giving it. How often in her life has she done that?"

"Not often, you're right," he said absently and buried his nose in the paper again.

"Don't agree with me just to humor me. I'm doing this for Lorelai. What's so wrong with wanting to help my only daughter have the wedding day she deserves?"

"Nothing, Dear," he said noncommittally, not wanting to start an argument with his wife right before he went to work.

"There you go again, just agreeing with me to placate me," she said as she continued her task.

"Sometimes with you, that's the best course of action," he said with a grin as he lowered the paper again.

She scowled at him in response, "Just read you paper and let me get on with what I'm doing. The wedding's only a little more than six weeks away and this has to get done."

"Yes, my love," he said as he once again returned to the paper and his wife returned to obsessing over the guest list. There was silence for a moment as they both concentrated on what they were doing until Emily gasped out of nowhere. "What is it, Emily?" he asked as he extracted himself from the paper again.

"Nothing," she lied. _It couldn't be,_ she thought as she looked at the latest response card she'd picked up. She looked at the return address on the envelope it had come in and back to the guest list and shook her head, not believing her eyes.

"That didn't sound like nothing, Emily. That sounded like something."

"It's really nothing. I'll handle it," she said quickly.

"Are you sure it's nothing you want to talk about? You look like you've just seen a ghost."

"I'm fine. I've got to go," she said as she picked up the offensive card and its envelope and stuffed them into her purse that was sitting on the vacant chair next to her.

"This early?" he said with a glance at his watch. It was only 6:30

"Yes, I've got a million errands to run," she said.

"What possible errands could you have before seven AM?"

"Just wedding preparations, nothing you need to worry about," She said evasively as she gathered up her things and headed out the front door, not wanting to tell him where she was going. She knew he'd try to stop her if he knew what she was up to. He would just tell her she was interfering again and maybe she _was_ breaking her promise to Luke to stay out of it, but in this case she felt she had to. Her daughter's future happiness depended on it.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Luke was awakened early by a knocking on the door of his motel room. He grumbled, crawled out of bed and opened the door to find April standing on the other side already dressed for the day.

"April, what is it? Is everything ok?" He asked in concern wondering why she was waking him at seven AM when they didn't have to be anywhere until nine when they were supposed to meet the rest of the group for breakfast.

"That's what I wanted to ask you," she said apprehensively. "Can I come in so we can talk?"

"Sure," he said letting her in. "You know you can talk to me whenever, wherever. "

"Good, "she said as she sat in the empty chair by the window. "Because I've been thinking..." she trailed off, not quite knowing how to begin.

"About what?" he said noticing the worried look on her face.

"Well, I kinda feel bad about the stuff I said to you yesterday."

"What stuff?"

"The stuff about you getting in the way. I want you to know, I didn't mean it the way it sounded. I like having you around. It's just that when I with my friends, I kinda feel like I need a little space from the whole spazzy watchful parent thing. It's a little embarrassing. I mean I think it's great that you're watching over me an all, but…" she stopped again.

"It's too much?" he suggested.

"Yeah. I'm sorry. I don't mean to hurt your feelings or anything," she said as she hung her head.

Luke knelt down in front of her chair and lifted her chin to make her look at him. "Hey, you're not hurting my feelings. I didn't realize I was embarrassing you. I'm still new at this whole dad thing and I want you to feel free to tell me if I'm doing it wrong."

"You're not doing it wrong. You're doing a great job. I love that you want to look out for me, just maybe you could not do it quite so much in front of my friends."

"Ok, I'll make you a deal. I promise I'll try to cut down on the spazzy watchful parent thing if you will promise to always tell me what's on your mind, even if you think it may hurt my feelings."

"I'll try," she said hesitantly. "It's just hard for me to talk about stuff sometimes."

"I've never noticed that. It seems like you're very outspoken about a lot of stuff."

"I am except when it comes to emotional stuff. It's hard for me to put my feelings into words, unless I get really mad."

"Well, you come by that honestly," he said with a laugh. "I'm the same way."

"No. you're not. You've been constantly trying to reassures me and Rory that you want to be there equally for both of us and the new babies, plus you're completely revolting with Lorelai."

"I've been trying, but it's not easy for me either. Lorelai kind of brings it out of me. I've never been one of those touchy-feely guys that are always sharing their feelings. In fact, when Lorelai and I first got together, it took me seeing her talking to another guy to make me spell out my feelings for her. Up until then, I hadn't said anything. I was just trying to show her how I felt without actually saying the words. I realize that's something that I still need to work on."

"You've loved Lorelai for a long time, huh?"

"Yeah, I have. I was just too stubborn to admit it because I was so afraid that she'd never feel the same way about me."

"That's just stupid," April said bluntly. "Anyone who sees the two of together can see how in love you guys are. It's a little nauseating if you want the truth."

Luke laughed and asked, "Do we make you as sick as Kevin does?"

"Not _that _sick, no. It's kind of nice that you're so happy. I hope I get that lucky someday when I'm grown up."

"Well, you never know, maybe you and Freddy will hook up one of these days…"

"Dad, stop!"

"… Be high school sweethearts…"

"Dad, come on!"

"…Grow up and get married…"

"I mean it, stop!"

"… and have a dozen babies…"

April blushed. "You're just being mean now," she said recalling the awkward conversation they'd had about her Sex Ed class.

"So you can tease me about Lorelai, but I can't tease you about Freddy?"he said with a grin, glad that she was more relaxed than when she'd come in.

"Yep, that's how it works," she said with a determined nod of her head.

"Do me a favor, just make sure you and Freddy don't make me a grandpa until I'm at least sixty," he said unable to resist just one more taunt. She playfully slapped his shoulder and blushed an even deeper shade of red. "Ok, I'll stop. What do you say we skip the whole big group breakfast thing and go get something to eat by ourselves before everyone else gets up? That way, I can have my time with you and you can still have time with your friends without your spazzy dad getting in the way."

"Sounds good," she said with a smile.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Christopher opened his front door only to have Emily force her way through it.

"What the hell is this," she demanded waving his RSVP in his face."

"Nice to see you too, Emily," he said sardonically.

"Don't try to be cute, Christopher. I want to know what you think you're doing with this." She said again indicating the envelope in her hand.

"I think that I'm replying to a wedding invitation, letting the bride and groom know that I'll be there. Surely, as many social gatherings as you've planned over the years, you'd know what an RSVP card is."

She glared at him icily and said, "Well, this is completely unacceptable! Take it back!" She thrust the card at him.

"No! Are you crazy? You can't ask someone to take back an RSVP!"

"I'm not asking," she said point blank. "I can't imagine what Lorelai was thinking when she added your name to the guest list."

"Lorelai invited me?" He'd been thinking similarly to his daughter that Emily must have been the one to invite him.

"_Please,_ Christopher. You don't think Luke would've invited you, do you? The man hates you and with good reason. You tried to break up his relationship with Lorelai last year."

"At your request! Or did you forget about the last time you were here? I haven't forgotten! You came here practically begging me to get between them because, let's see, how did you put it? 'He's completely unsuitable for Lorelai.'"

"I was wrong."

"Excuse me? I must be going deaf here. I thought I just heard you say you were wrong. I know I must be hearing things."

"You heard correctly. I made a snap judgment last year before I even knew Luke and saw how happy he makes my daughter. He's a good man, though his taste in clothes is like a Greek tragedy. Lorelai is _truly _happy with him and I won't have you destroying that, no matter what her misguided motivations for inviting you may be."

"Did it ever occur to you that maybe Lorelai invited me because I'm her friend or that maybe I'm _not_ trying to destroy her happiness?"

"Her friend? Who are you trying to kid, Christopher? You'll never be her friend. You'll be carrying a torch for her until the day you die. You know it and I know it and it doesn't matter that you say you're not out to destroy her happiness! It's not in your nature to let something you want pass you by. I blame your mother for that. She always coddled you too much, turning you into a weak, spineless, spoiled mama's boy, something that you've never outgrown."

"Thank you, Emily," he said sarcastically. "Thank you for driving two hours to tell what a disappointment I am. It's not like I haven't heard it enough lately from my own daughter."

"She's not wrong. You _have _been a disappointment to her as a father."

"And I'm trying to make it right," he argued getting impatient with Emily. "Look, I've got to be at work in fifteen minutes, so can we wrap this up?"

Emily stared at him for a moment and then laid the RSVP card on his coffee table like she'd done the previous year with her own wedding invitation and said, "I'm going to leave this here and pretend you never sent it back and I suggest you do the same. Rory would never forgive you if you hurt her mother and Luke." She brushed past him and out the door, leaving him staring after her shaking his head.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"Lorelai, Slow down," Sookie said to her best friend as she watched her shovel bite after bite of her breakfast into her mouth. "You're gonna be sick!"

"No, that's just it, Sookie. I'm _not _sick. For the first morning in a while, I didn't wake up with the overwhelming urge to hurl. I intend to take full advantage of it. Besides this is a great omelet."

"Thanks," she said with a smile. "I was surprised you wanted me to fix you breakfast this morning. You usually eat breakfast at _Luke's."_

"Yeah, I know, but it's not the same without Luke."

"So, how's Luke doing on this trip with April? He hasn't killed any of the kids yet, has he?"

Lorelai laughed and shook her head, "No, although if he would there's one in particular that he would. This boy that April has a crush on."

"April has a crush on a boy?"

"Yeah, and it's totally freaking him out. He's still getting used to the idea that he _has_ a daughter, now he has to get used to the idea that he's very soon going to have a teenage daughter."

"Remember that summer when Mrs. Cassini's grandson was visiting and Rory had that huge crush on him and she made the mistake of telling Luke about it and he started practically stalking the kid to make sure Rory was ok?"

"Yeah, that's Luke for you. He's insanely overprotective. Nothing ever came of that crush though. She just mooned over him for two months and at the end of the summer he went home to his parents in Florida."

"Yeah, I remember. Rory was crushed until Luke reassured her that there were other boys out there right here in Stars Hollow that wouldn't be here just for the summer. With all he's done for Rory and for Jess, I can't believe that he ever thought he'd be a bad father. He's been practicing at it for years."

"I know, but you can't convince him of that. He may seem gruff on the surface, but he's got a lot of underlying insecurities and he wants to be the best possible dad he can be."

"Hence the 'no coffee for you' rule," Sookie said with a smirk.

"That's so not fair. I expected it from Caesar and Lane because they work for him, but you are another story. What did he do to keep you from giving me coffee?"

"I'll never tell," she said teasingly.

"Traitor," Lorelai said with a frown.

"So, back to the task at hand," she said gesturing to the wedding planning books on the table in front of them. "What are we thinking for table setting and centerpieces?"

"Nothing too fancy. It _is _going to be outside. This one's nice, but not too over the top," she said indicating a photo in one of the magazines." Can you do something similar to that?"

"Hello? How many weddings have I helped plan between here and the Independence Inn?"

"I know, Sookie, but this is _my _wedding, you know? I want it to be nice, but to still feel like me and Luke, you know?"

"Then why don't you just serve burgers and fries at the reception?" Sookie jested.

Lorelai laughed and said, "It's so funny that you say that. When my mom was trying to help you with your wedding and you fired her, she came and attacked me at the diner saying that she was probably standing in my reception hall and that there'd be burgers and Fries for the menu. It seemed like she knew even then that I'd one day marry Luke."

Sookie laughed at that and said,"Oh, Honey, we all _knew _that. It was only a matter of time before the two of you stopped dancing around your feelings for each other. And now it's happening. You and Luke are getting married and you're having a baby. It's so exciting."

"Yeah, it is. I'm just surprised my mother hasn't tried to stick her nose in the wedding planning. It's unusual for her."

"Isn't she handling the guest list and the RSVPs and seating charts and stuff?"

"Yeah, which means she'll probably be driving you nits before long since you're doing the catering."

"I can handle her."

"Are you forgetting the dancing midgets?"

"No, but like you said this is _your _wedding and I'll just make sure she knows it."

"It's weird though. She's been strangely supportive lately. Ever since that dinner Luke and I have at their house back in February, she's actually been referring to Luke as family."

"Isn't that a good thing? She's finally supporting something good in your life."

"I don't know. It just feels like there's something off about it. It's like waiting for the other shoe to drop, not knowing what she's really thinking or if she's secretly planning some kind of hostile takeover and she's using the guest list thing to get the ball rolling."

"But didn't you _ask _her to do the guest list thing?"

"I did that so she'd be involved in at least one aspect of the wedding planning so she wouldn't try to run the whole thing. I'm just not sure that that's going to be enough for her," Lorelai said worriedly. She sighed. "Maybe we should've just eloped."

"No! You are not going to deprive Stars Hollow from being there to see you and Luke finally getting married. The whole town's been rooting for you two for years and getting married in the town square is the perfect idea for you guys. Besides, Luke's already done the eloping thing and we all saw how that turned out."

"You know, Luke and I were talking about that Tuesday night when he called me from Philly. We started talking about our wedding plans and then he said that he's sorry that this isn't his first marriage. He asked me if I was worried that our marriage wouldn't last either."

"Really? So, what did you say to that?"

"I just tried to reassure him that I'm ok with the fact that he's been married before and then reminded him that I've been engaged before. I also told him that I knew that he'd learned from the mistakes he made with Nicole. I pointed out to him that when he lived with her, he didn't _really _live with her, but since he's been living with me, it's been altogether different. He's completely rearranged his hours at the diner just so he can be home with me at night and we can have dinner together and the whole works. It's nice."

"That _is _nice," Sookie said. "Now, let's get back to work on the wedding part so you can get to the marriage part. What do you think, soup or salad?" She asked to get her friend focused back on the task at hand. They dug into their planning and concentrated for the next two hours on getting the menu details finalized while Lorelai inwardly mulled over everything they'd just talked about.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Paris and Rory were in the campus dining hall eating breakfast and chatting casually about the paper.

"I think your interview with Professor Woodington came out very nicely, fruit flies notwithstanding." Rory said and noticed Paris staring off to the side and not paying attention. "Hello? Paris? I just gave you a compliment."

"Sorry," Paris said.

"What's got you so distracted?"

"Ok, don't look, but your stalker ex=boyfriend is staring at you. Nine O'clock."

"Logan?"

"How many stalker ex=boyfriends do you have?"

"Logan's not a stalker."

"Then how do you explain the incident at the paper the other day?"

"That was just about paper stuff, which is bound to happen from time to time since we both still work on the paper. Plus, he was upset about the piece on textbook prices."

"Hey, you had every right to write that piece. Given his track record there's no way you could've guaranteed that he would get it done. I'd have done the same thing if I were still the editor."

"But you got ousted for being too much of a hardass."

"It wasn't _that _bad."

"Come on, Paris! The other staffers practically chased you out of the newsroom with pitchforks and flaming torches."

"Crap! He's coming over here." Paris got out of her seat and stood in front of Rory's as if to shield her from Logan. "Well, if it isn't Yale's favorite skankmonger!" she said to him, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "Been tested for STDs lately? You really should, you know. You can't let those things go too long untreated." Rory laughed at her roommate's comments.

"Get out of my way, Paris. I'm just here to drop off my notes for my article on the gap between declining financial aid and rising tuition. I figured since I'm not allowed to write my own articles anymore, I'd just go ahead and hand it off right now before the deadline. So, here you go. Give that to the editor, will ya?" He thrust his notes at her and walked away.

Rory rose from the table, snatched the notes from Paris' hands and trailed after Logan. "Here," she said giving them back to him. "Write your article. Just make sure you have it to me, by Monday afternoon at the latest."

"Or what? You'll write it for me?"

"No, it just won't get printed and you'll have one less byline to impress your anal-retentive father with."

"Screw my father! This isn't about him. This is about us!"

"There is no 'us' anymore, Logan. I thought I made that perfectly clear."

"You did, and I'm staying away except for the paper stuff, but you didn't have to humiliate me in front of the entire staff. They all knew I'd been assigned that piece and then they knew you went behind my back and wrote it yourself. You completely made me look like a fool!"

"Now you know how it feels," she said quietly, walking back to her table to rejoin Paris and finish her breakfast.

TBC


	29. Chapter 29

Jess Mariano was talking and joking with his friends at Truncheon Books when he noticed a familiar face in the corner staring sideways at an abstract painting.

"So, you made it," he said to his uncle.

"I told you I would."

"Yeah, I guess I didn't think you would what with having a pregnant fiancée at home."

"You guessed wrong, Nephew," he said with a smile. "So, how'd you hear about Lorelai being pregnant?"

"Liz filled me in on all that, Daddy," he said with a grin. "It seems you've been a naughty boy."

"Stop," his uncle said.

"She also told me that the wedding's back on track. You know, when you're planning a wedding, a phone call to your best man might be a good idea."

"Yeah," Luke said sheepishly. "Sorry about that. I kept meaning to call, but things got so crazy, by the time I had a free moment to call you, I was already here in Philly, so I thought I'd just fill you in, in person, but I guess my sister beat me to it."

"Yeah, she never could keep he mouth shut," he said with a laugh. "So, things are better? Lorelai's getting to know your kid and all?"

"Yeah, things are better and by the way," he said gesturing to April who was engrossed in a magazine, "That is your cousin. She's a total brain."

"You confirm paternity?"Jess asked with a smirk.

"Doesn't be a wiseass," Luke replied and called to his daughter, "Hey April! I want you to meet somebody. When she walked over he added," Meet your cousin Jess. He's your Aunt Liz's kid."

"Hi," she said to Jess.

"Hey, so, you're the famous April," Jess said.

"I'm famous?" She said with a smile and looked at her dad.

"Kinda."

April looked from her father to her cousin and said, "Men in this family aren't chatty."

"Sorry."

April looked at her dad and said, "I'm going to go explore a little more."

"Cool," her father replied as he watched her go.

"How are you and Lorelai adjusting to all that?"

"Ok, I guess. It's still a little weird, but we've done a couple of family dinners and movies and stuff. Lorelai absolutely adores her. As scary as it sounds, even the Gilmores seem to have accepted her."

"Please tell me you didn't expose that poor child to the modern torture device known as the Gilmore Manor Friday night dinner."

"What are you talking about? You only ever went to one of them and you showed up with a black eye and gave no explanation for how you got it. Not a good thing in Emily Gilmore's book."

"Still, though, why take your kid there?"

"It had to happen eventually. They're going to be my in-laws very soon."

"So you're serious about marrying Lorelai and not just because you knocked her up?"

"Yes, I'm serious."

"That's good, because I already made an appointment with the bridal shop to get measured for my tux next weekend."

"Good."

"So, you want the tour?"

"Give me the tour," Luke replied beaming with pride at his nephew's success.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Emily stood on her daughter's front porch that evening getting irritated. She'd rung the bell twice and gotten no response. She knew Lorelai was home because her jeep was in the driveway and she could hear music blaring from an upstairs window. She finally gave up on the doorbell, realizing her daughter couldn't hear it over the loudness of the music. She tried the doorknob and not surprisingly found it unlocked. She let herself in and made her way toward the direction of the music. As she walked into the bedroom her daughter shared with her fiancé she noticed Lorelai dancing around a mannequin with a box of pins in her hand. She didn't seem to notice she was there. She found the stereo and turned it off causing her daughter to jump a little, scattering straight pins everywhere.

Lorelai turned around and said,"Jeez, Mom. You almost gave me a heart attack."

"Well, I had to get your attention since you obviously couldn't hear the doorbell," Emily said waspishly.

"Sorry, I was just kind of into what I was doing here."

"Apparently so," her mother said. "What exactly is that monstrosity supposed to be?" she asked indicating the mannequin.

"It's a work in progress."

"Of what? It looks like something you'd find at a yard sale."

"It's a wedding dress, or at least it will be when I get done with it."

"Why are you working on a wedding dress, when you already have a beautiful dress in your closet? I saw it, remember?"

"Yes, Mom, of course I remember. You insisted that I try it on and model it for you."

"So, what's with this one? You're surely not thinking of wearing this instead of the one you've already got. I know you may gain a little weight between now and your wedding day and need to alter your dress, but this is a little extreme. It's completely shapeless. You won't have gained that much weight by June third."

"This dress isn't for me, Mom. It's for Lane. It was her mother's wedding dress and she asked me to alter it for her daughter. Her wedding's only nine days away now."

"If you ask me, the best way you can alter that dress is with a gallon of gasoline and a match."

Lorelai laughed as she recalled Lane's desperate pleas for her to destroy the dress. "I've got some ideas for how I can make it better so Lane won't be embarrassed on her wedding day."

"Speaking of causing embarrassment on someone's wedding day," Emily began trying to get to the point of her impromptu visit. "What were you thinking about when you made up your guest list?"

"Look, Mom, I know you don't really care for some of the residents of Stars Hollow, but they're a part of our lives and I couldn't not invite them especially since we're having our wedding in the town square."

"I'm not talking about anyone from Stars Hollow. I'm talking about your insane lack of good judgment inviting Christopher to your wedding! What possibly could have possessed you to do such an asinine thing?"

"Wait, you're mad because I invited Christopher? I thought you'd be over the moon about that since he comes from your world."

"Of course I'm not happy about it! That man has done nothing but try to cause trouble in your relationship with Luke! Does Luke know he was invited?"

"Yes, of course Luke knows. We talked about it beforehand and we decided that since we're inviting Anna who's the mother of his child, it was only fair that we invite the father of my child."

"You invited Anna too? Good lord, Lorelai! Why not invite Max or Jason or better yet, add Luke's ex-wife to the guest list while you're at it! I'm sure _that _would make the wedding interesting."

"I can't believe you're getting so bent about this! We _had_ to invite Anna since April's in the wedding party. We couldn't very well ask her to drop her kid off and then come back and pick her up and not allow her to stay for the wedding. I figured if we didn't invite Chris too, you'd go all Emily Post on me about inviting one and not the other!"

"You can't be serious! While I realize you and Luke won't have time on your wedding day to pick April up and take her back home, other arrangements could have been made to provide for her transportation if only you would've bothered to ask for help. But, NO, you're too proud to ask for help when you need it."

"I wasn't too proud to ask you for help with the guest list, was I? Do you have any idea how hard it was for me to do that when you always act like any favor you do for me keeps me indebted to you for life?"

"Well, since you obviously don't want my help, maybe I should just turn the guest list over to Sookie, since she's doing the catering."

"Don't do that, Mom. I asked you to do the guest list because I wanted _you _to do it. If I'd wanted Sookie to do it, I'd have asked Sookie, but I didn't. I asked you!"

"Very well," Emily said with a sigh as she sank down on the end of the bed. "I guess I'll keep doing what I've been doing."

"Thank you," Lorelai said as she sat next to her mother. "Now, do you want to tell me what's _really_ going on in your head?"

"This always happens with us, doesn't it? Every time we start to make progress toward understanding each other, something like this happens."

"Come on, Mom," she said her tone a little lighter. "We had to have another fight eventually. We were getting along _way _too much. It's not natural, considering how different we are."

Emily chuckled lightly at this and said, "I suppose you're right. It _was _inevitable. We view things very differently, but right now we have the same goal in mind, to get you happily married to the man you love. That's why I was worried when I saw Christopher's name on the guest list. I didn't want you to ruin that by having him there."

"Trust me, Mom. I highly doubt Chris will show up. He and Luke don't exactly get along."

Emily debated about telling her daughter of her visit to Boston that morning but decided it was better if she didn't know. Instead she said, "I'm surprised that Luke is ok with you inviting him in the first place."

"He's not really, just like I'm not really ok with Anna being there, but this is something that Luke and I are both working on. I'm trying to accept the fact that because of April, Luke will always have Anna in his life to some extent and he's trying to do the same with Christopher. It's hard, but we're both trying to be more tolerant and not let jealousy get in the way. The fact that Luke was willing to allow Chris to be invited shows real progress toward that goal. He and Chris are never going to be bosom buddies, just like Anna and I aren't because I'll never be able to let go of the fact that she kept Luke from knowing about April, but I'd like for us all to at least be able to be civil to one another for the sake of our children. With all of that in mind, it felt wrong not to invite Chris because he is at least trying to make amends with Rory."

"And Anna?"

"Well, I'm not sure how that one's gonna play out yet, but it seems like she's getting there. I know from first-hand experience how hard it is to allow another woman into your daughter's life who could potentially be a mother figure, but she's making an effort."

"I think I understand," Emily said. She really did. She recalled how jealous she was of Mia and the close bond that Lorelai had with her. She gently squeezed her daughter's hand and glanced again at the diamond ring on it. "This really is the perfect ring for you. Luke has good taste, at least in jewelry. His wardrobe is something else entirely."

Lorelai laughed. "Do me a favor, Mom. Don't try to GQ him up. I love him just the way he is. Besides in a way it's kind of sexy."

"Sexy? Are you serious?"

"Yeah, he covers himself up all the time so that only I know what an amazing body he hides underneath the layers of cotton and flannel. It's like discovering buried treasure."

"Lorelai, really," Emily said in exasperation.

"What, Mom? He's a damn fine-looking man and it's not like I got pregnant without ever seeing him naked. Why are you getting all prudish on me now after our conversation in the mall last weekend?"

"I'm not quite comfortable yet having this kind of conversation with you. It's just the other day I was trying to let my guard down a little with you to get you to open up to me. I know it sounds ridiculous, but I've always been envious of the fact that you and Rory seem like you can always talk about anything and you and I can't. The funny thing is, my girlfriends in the DAR get downright vulgar sometimes at our meetings and it doesn't bother me. I even join in with them, but with you, it's harder. I don't know what I can and can't say without offending you or having you think that I'm butting into your life."

"You know that I'll always tell you when you're butting in," she said with a laugh, then continued. "What I really need from you is for you to support the choices I make in my life whether you agree with them or not, and I need you to respect the fact that we have different opinions on things. I want you to feel free to express your opinion, but I also need you to let me express mine. I think you've actually started making progress. I mean, you haven't acted disgusted once about the fact that we're having an outdoor wedding in the town square."

"Well, honestly I'd have preferred you to have your wedding in a traditional church setting with your reception in a nice banquet hall, but from hearing you two talk, I can see that the town square holds special meaning for you and Luke, so I can't argue with that. It's your wedding and you should have it the way you want it. Plus, it is a nice spot where you'll be able to have some lovely photographs of your special day. By the way, who's your photographer?"

"We don't have one."

"What? How can you not have booked a photographer this close to the wedding? It's going to be nearly impossible to find a decent one now in time for the wedding."

"We decided not to have a professional photographer. We both hate those stagey posed photographs that don't really capture who we are. We were just planning on setting out those disposable cameras on all the tables and having all the guests take pictures so that we capture the real spirit of our wedding day. Besides we don't really want to waste an hour of our wedding day, being told to 'stand here', 'turn there', and 'smile a little more' and 'oh, no, you're smiling too much'."

"That is simply unacceptable. You have to have a professional photographer on your wedding day. I know some people. I'll make some calls."

"Mom, you're butting in now."

"I don't care, Lorelai. I haven't said anything about the plans you and Luke are making. I've just gone along with everything to make you happy, but I'm putting my foot down on this. You can still have your disposable cameras and your candid photos, but you're my only daughter and you're only getting married once, I hope, and I would like to have some decent pictures to capture the moment.

"Mom, come on. That's not what we want."

"Please, Lorelai, let me do this. I don't want to take over your wedding planning, but can't I at least have this one thing?"

"All right," Lorelai agreed with a sigh. "But at least let me break the news to Luke. It'll sound better coming from me. If you say something to him about it, he'll just think you're talking him down again."

"Ok," she said. "I should probably get going. Your father must be wondering where I'm at by now and you've got a dress to finish."

"I guess I'll see you at dinner tomorrow night then."

"Don't be late," she said as she made her way out of the room and down the stairs.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Rory walked into Truncheon Books a little nervously, not quite knowing what the outcome of her visit would be. She saw Jess standing with his friends talking and stood there awkwardly, not knowing if she should say hi or just wait for him to notice her. Before she could figure it out, her Jess turned and saw her, making the decision for her.

"Well, isn't this a day of surprises," he said. He'd sent her in invitation, but never imagined in a million years that she'd actually come.

"I didn't RSVP," she replied uncomfortably. "Sorry."

"This isn't an RSVP type thing. Showing up's cool," _Very cool, _he thought.

"Good thing." She took a look around the place admiringly. "So this is Truncheon books."

"Yeah, this is Truncheon."

"I like it. It makes me feel like I instantly want to create something. Give me a pen, give me a brush," she said with enthusiasm before spotting her future step-father and step-sister. "Luke!"

"Yeah, there's a definite 'Jess Mariano, this is your life' vibe here today," he said with a sardonic chuckle as they walked over to where Luke was staring intently at another abstract painting and April was sitting with her nose in a book.. "Hey, Luke."

"Bicycle?" Luke questioned indicating the painting.

"No."

"Rory, hi. What are you doing here?" Luke asked his soon-to-be step-daughter.

"Same thing you're doing here," Rory answered.

"Hey, Rory," April said before commenting to Jess, "Your books are really easy to skim."

"Thanks. That'll make a nice blurb."

"I was going to take off, actually," Luke said.

"Uh, I've got to get something," Jess said awkwardly, not wanting his uncle to know just yet what he was up to. "Don't leave 'till I get back, I'll just be a minute."

"Okay," Luke said with a shrug.

"So, how's the contest going, April."

"We're doing pretty good so far, but we may have to stay another couple of days. The moderator ended up with a bad case of food poisoning so they put everything on hold until he either gets out of the hospital or they find another," April answered.

"Does Mom know?" Rory asked Luke in concern. She knew from the conversations she'd had with her mother this week, that she was having a hard time being away from him for this long.

"Yeah, I called her this afternoon just in case, but it's not a definite thing yet. I hope it only delays us a day because I don't want your mom to have to go to Lane's wedding without me."

"Yeah, that would suck. Since I've been helping Lane with her wedding stuff, Mrs. Kim has been asking endless questions about you and Mom and if you're really getting married. I think it's related to the whole pregnancy before marriage thing. You know how Mrs. Kim is."

"I know," he said. "But she knows that we've been in a relationship for quite a while now. Speaking of which," he said to April. "I bet you can't wait to get back to that boyfriend of yours, right?

"He's _not_ my boyfriend, April said rolling her eyes. "Jeez."

Rory watched this with a bemused smile as Jess came walking back up to them.

"Hey, Luke. Come here," Jess said and they stepped away from the girls. He handed Luke a copy of his book." Here"

"Oh, let me buy this, so that way you would get the money."

"Uh...No, it's okay," he said as he gestured to the book. Luke pulled a check out of it]

"What's this?"

"It's what's owed."

"You owe me nothing," Luke said and tried to hand the check back to him.

"I _owe_ you. Take it, and if you rip it up, I'm just going to send you another."

Luke sighed realizing that his nephew was just as stubborn as he was. "I'm very proud of you. Of this - of what you're going for here. I don't get all of it, but... I'm me."

"Thanks," he said and hugged his uncle before they returned to Rory and April.

"All I said was that I liked him," April was explaining to Rory, "and I realized it was a mistake as soon as I said it."

"Just wait until you start dating for real and see how he acts," she said. "Right, Jess?"

Jess blushed a little and Luke jumped in and said, "We should get going. Good luck with this, congratulations."

"Thanks, Uncle Luke," Jess said.

"No, thank _you,_" Luke said, knowing that Jess would get his meaning.

"I'll see you a week from Sunday in Stars Hollow."

"I'll be there. See ya, Rory."

"Bye guys," Rory said to Luke and April as they left the building, before turning to Jess. "So, show me around the place."

Jess proceeded to give Rory the same tour he'd given Luke before he was accosted by his friends and Rory, not wanting to intrude kept herself occupied by re-reading Jess' book. When they had left, Jess walked over to where she was sitting and said. "You know, you don't have to read it again."

"I know I don't."

"There are so many things I would change in it," he said with a self-conscious shake of his head.

"Like what?"

"I'd - keep the back cover. Everything else goes."

Rory laughed a little at this and said, "You know why I love your book?"

"Why?"

"It doesn't remind me of anything. It's not a rip-off, it's just you."

"High praise, Miss Yale Editor."

"Yeah, well, I don't get to write as much as I would like. I'm mostly assigning and motivating, hand-holding and re-writing."

"Yeah, and you love it. Every minute of it. Come on, tell me you don't."

"I do. I do love it. It's exciting."

"You look happier than when I saw you last."

"I am," she confirmed.

"So... you fixed everything?"

"Yeah. Everything's fixed," _except my broken heart,_ she added silently.

"I'm glad you're here."

"Yeah, me too," she said with a smile. Jess leaned in to kiss her. She kissed him back for a moment until he reached in to pull her closer, then she broke away.

"What?" he said in confusion.

She got up, moved away from him a little and said, "I'm sorry."

"About what?"

"Uh, about coming here like this. I just got the flyer, and, I don't know, I just wanted to see your place, but then - this. It's not fair to you, I'm such a jerk."

"I don't know what you're talking about," he said, still bewildered. He'd thought she was just as into the kiss as he was, but now she was acting all weird.

"I can't do this. I'm still in love with him."

"That - guy?" Rory nodded sadly while Jess covered his face with his hands. "You're still with him. I thought everything was fixed. I hate this! You came here alone. To Philadelphia and you're still with him!"

"I'm not still with him. I broke up with him because he cheated on me, but that doesn't change the fact that I'm still in love with him."

"I don't deserve this, Rory!"

"No, you don't! You don't deserve it! I just - I'm in love with him. Despite all the bad he's done, I can't help it. I'm in love with him."

"So, are you going back to him, then?"

"No, I can't. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I did."

"I guess I'll call Matthew's poet and have him explain love to me. Poets know all about it, right?"

"Supposed to," she replied shyly. "Well, I guess I'd better go."

"Ok," he said. As she turned to leave, he had another thought and stopped her. "Hey, wait." Rory turned without saying anything and just looked at him expectantly. "Are you gonna be ok with the fact that I'll be in Stars Hollow next weekend for my tux fitting thing?"

"Yeah," she said. "You have to be there. You promised Luke you'd be his best man. I knew that when I agreed to be my mom's maid of honor."

"Hey, aren't the best man and the maid of honor supposed to get insanely drunk and start making out in the middle of the reception," he joked trying to lighten the mood.

Rory laughed and replied, "I don't know about the making out part, but I'll save you a dance. After all, we never did get our prom night."

"I'll be looking forward to it," he said with a smile as he watched her leave,


	30. Chapter 30

AN: I want to apologize for the shortness of this chapter, but I have a plan in mind for chapter 31 that really doesn't fit in with where this chapter was going. I'm starting on it now, so it should be up either today or tomorrow. Also, I wanted to let everyone who's been faithfully reading this that I may not be able to update quite as often as I have been in the next few weeks as I bowl in three leagues during the fall and winter that last 28-30 weeks and my leagues for this season are starting up again this week. I will still try to devote as much time to it as I can, but i may not be able to continue with the daily updates that I've been doing. So please be patient with me as I make the necessary adjustments to accomodate my busy schedule. Once again, thanks to everyone for reading and reviewing. It is greatly appreciated.

Lanie

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Luke made his nightly call to Lorelai after leaving Truncheon Books and dropping April off in her room. He told her all about the visit with Jess and she listened eagerly.

"So, anyway, he says to me, 'If you rip it up, I'll just send you another one'," he finished.

"Wow, sounds like you're boy's really grown up," Lorelai said in amazement. "You must be so proud."

"I am. He seems like he's really doing great. I didn't understand half the crap that was going on there, but it seems like he's finally found his niche."

"That's so great," Lorelai said, happy that Luke had enjoyed his visit with his wayward nephew. "You know, he has you to thank for his success."

"What? I didn't do anything," Luke protested.

"Sure, you did, Hon. You took him in, and you gave him guidance and tried to keep him on a productive path when he was floundering. You did a good thing. If you ask me, it gave you some good practice for what's to come with our little ones."

"Dealing with a surly teenager has hardly prepared me for caring for two babies," he said. "It's like oranges and apples."

"Which is why it's a good thing that we'll be doing this together. I've got baby experience, not two at once, but I'll have you to help me. You didn't have that with Jess. You were alone in that."

"No, I wasn't. I had you."

"Not true, you didn't actually _have _me until like a year and half after Jess moved out," she said suggestively.

Luke laughed at this and said, "Leave it to you to turn a heartwarming talk about parenting into something dirty."

"Like I was just gonna let that lie there."

"Yeah, I noticed on our first date that you're not much for the just lying there," he quipped recalling the first time they'd made love and how energetic she was.

"So, you concede that that night was our first date and not Liz's wedding. I win!" she crowed triumphantly.

"Actually, I win. It doesn't matter what day we consider our first date, I won when I got you to notice me."

"The girls are right. You _are _turning into a great big sap," she said with a laugh, but loving it all the same. She then added sadly, "I wish you were here."

"Oh yeah?" What would you do if I was there right now?"

"I wouldn't be just lying there that's for sure. I'd show you just how much I've been missing you. In fact, when you're on your way home, you'd best be taking a nap on the bus because you're not getting any sleep for a while once you're back in our bed."

"Tell me what you want to do to me," he said seductively.

"If I told you now, that would ruin the surprise. What fun would that be?"

"Now, you're just teasing me," he groaned in frustration.

"Well, you're four hours away. All I can do is tease you," she said her voice tinged with sadness.

"Hey, I'll be home before you know it," he said reassuringly. "As soon as this thing is done, I'll be there. I hate this just as much as you do. I hate that I'm gonna miss your birthday next week and that I might not be able to make it to Lane's wedding."

"Me too," she said. "I was looking forward to us attending the Kim-Van Gerbig wedding together but the way I look at it as long as we both make it to the Gilmore-Danes wedding, everything's good," she said with more confidence than she felt, brushing away the tears from her eyes.

"I wouldn't miss that wedding for the world. I hear the Gilmore-Danes wedding's going to be quite the party," he said teasingly sensing her sadness.

"It _is _the most anticipated wedding in Stars Hollow history," she said, her tone lightening a little. "Everybody who's anybody's going to be there. It's going to be the social event of the season."

"You think?"

"Oh, yeah," she said. "Although I hear that trampy Gilmore girl got herself knocked up already."

"That Danes guy kinda had something to do with it too. I mean, after all, the whole town knows he's been carrying a torch for that Gilmore girl for years. It was only a matter of time before he had his way with her. "

"The way I heard it, he could have had his way with her anytime he wanted, if he'd just made his feelings known sooner."

"Yeah, he was pretty much an idiot back then. But they finally got it together and when they did, the whole town knew about it, especially after she walked into his restaurant wearing nothing but his shirt," he said, smiling at the memory of her panic-stricken face when she'd re-entered the apartment.

"Hey, that was entirely your fault!" she said.

"How was your running into the diner half-naked my fault?"

"You didn't have coffee in the apartment. You know I can't live without my jolt in the morning. You should have anticipated that I would want coffee."

"I was supposed to anticipate that you'd be spending the night with me on our first date? I was completely blown away by the fact that you wanted to go home with me at the end of our date."

"Also, your fault." He snorted in response, "Well, it _was._ You seduced me with that damn horoscope."

He laughed and said, "You know I still have that crazy thing in my wallet."

"Really?" she said elated that he still had it.

"Yes," he admitted. "And you _cannot _mock me for this later, but since we've been apart, I've been looking at it a lot more, just because it reminds me of you."

"No mocking," she said deeply touched. "If it makes you feel any better, I've been sleeping on your side of the bed all week just to feel close to you."

"Just so you know, I'll be reclaiming it when I get home next week."

"I wouldn't have it any other way."

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Late that evening, Rory was sitting at a table in the campus pub across from her father lost in thought after returning from Philly. She was wondering if he was still planning on making an appearance at her mother's wedding, but didn't quite have the nerve to ask him about it. It had been a weird day; first the confrontation with Logan, then the phone call she'd made to her mom to find out about her dad's wedding invite, then the impromptu trip to Philadelphia, and now a drink with her dad. She'd seriously thought about cancelling her plans with Christopher, but they'd already made the plan and he'd driven the two hours from Boston to hang out with her, so she hadn't, even though she really just wanted to be alone so she could process things. She kept thinking about what had happened with Jess. She hadn't expected him to kiss her or that she would kiss him back. She was reeling from the experience. She still wasn't over Logan, but that kiss had reminded her that she and Jess had never had any real closure at the end of their relationship. She wondered how things would be at her mother's wedding with both of them there and their unresolved issues hanging over them.

"You're awfully quiet over there," Chris said wondering what was going on his daughter's head that had her in such a daze.

"I'm sorry, Dad," she said. "I've just got a lot on my mind. It's been kind of a crazy day."

"Anything you wannna talk about with your old man?" he asked hoping that she'd take him up on it. He really wanted to get to know her better, especially in light of his earlier conversation with Emily when she bluntly pointed out to him what a disappointment he was as a father.

"Thanks for the offer, Dad, but we're kinda of in Mom territory here," she said. She hadn't told her mom yet about what had happened in Philly, but she desperately needed to. She wanted to get her perspective on it.

"I see," he said with disappointment. "I'm not your mom, but I'm willing to listen if you want to talk. I can see something's bothering you. Is it the break-up with Logan?"

She hesitated, not sure that her dad would understand, "yes…no…I don't know…Sort of?"

"Well, that clears things right up," Chris said sardonically.

"Again, I'm sorry," she said as she took a sip of her beer.

"Man, this is weird," Christopher said.

"I know. You're my father and there shouldn't be this weirdness between us, but it's there and I can't help it. I'm trying really hard to get over it, but the weirdness is still there."

"I didn't mean that. I meant sitting in a bar with my kid, drinking a beer. It doesn't seem like you should be old enough to drink."

"Maybe that's because you haven't been around," her defenses up again. "I've been old enough to drink for almost seven months now. Maybe it you'd been at my 21st birthday party, you wouldn't feel so weird about it."

"I don't recall being invited," he said cynically.

"You're my father. You know when my birthday is or at least you should. Even if you couldn't have made it to the party, you could have at least called to find out what my birthday plans were. Twenty-one is a big birthday."

"But I suppose _Luke _was there," he said venomously, upset that his daughter still refused to share any details of her life with him.

"Why do you have to say his name like it's a dirty word? Yes, he was there! He's _always _been there. He even gave me a sweet, thoughtful gift. It was this beautiful pearl necklace that used to belong to his mother."

"What's your mother's boyfriend doing giving you family heirlooms when he's got his own daughter?"

"Ok, first of all, he's her fiancé, and second he gave it to me because it meant something to him and he's always loved me as if I _were _his daughter."

"But you're not! You're _my _daughter!'

"I know that! Luke knows it too! It's not like he's purposely trying to take your place, Dad! He's just trying to be there for me. It's not his fault that you never have! God! Why does this always happen when we're together? You said last night you were going to try to deal with the fact that I'm always going to have Luke in my life, but it doesn't seem like you're dealing with it all that well."

"I'm trying, Rory, but you have to understand that this is hard for me! I'm on my way to accepting the fact that he's taken my place in your mom's heart, but I'm still trying to deal with the idea that I have to compete with him for a place in yours too!"

Rory sighed, finally starting to understand where her dad was coming from. She said more quietly, "You don't have to compete with Luke. You _have _a place in my heart. You always will, but it's not the same as the place in my heart I have for Luke."

"Yeah, you're made that very clear," he said bitterly. "I don't get what you want from me. You told me when I was at the house that the reason you share stuff with Luke is because he asks about your life and I don't. Well, here I am asking about your life, trying to be the father you want me to be, and you still clam up on me. I don't know what else I can do to convince you that I'm trying."

"I'm sorry," she said for the third time realizing that her father had a point. "I'm just so used to the not sharing stuff with you thing, that I really don't know how to do this. And you're right, you _did _ask and I appreciate the effort."

Chris smiled and said, "Let's try again. So, Rory, you're awfully quiet over there. Anything you wanna talk about with your old man?"

"Well, I've had a really crazy day," she said and launched into the story of the madness of her day.

"Wow!" _Really _crazy day. So how do you-" he began. Before he could say anything further, Rory's cell phone went off.

"Hold that thought," she said as she dug her cell out of her purse and looked at it.

"Who's calling?"

"It's not a call; It's a message from April," she laughed as she read it. April had sent her a copy of the picture of the two of them she'd taken with her new phone and typed a note about how crazy Luke was when it came to his girls dealing with the opposite sex.

"April? Luke's daughter?"

"Yeah," she said. "Give me just a sec to reply to her and let her know that now's not a good time so she doesn't think I'm blowing her off." She began texting back. "Dammit! Stupid non-messaging phone," she said in frustration as she had to use twice as many keystrokes to type what she wanted on the number keypad. She sent her reply and looked back up at her dad. "Sorry about that."

"Just a quick question. How come you referred to it as a non-messaging phone when it's obviously capable of sending and receiving messages?"

"Because this one doesn't have the full keyboard like my old one did, but that one broke and I don't really have the money to replace it and it's got physical damage which isn't covered by my warranty, so I had to go back to my old one. Now, April's got me at a disadvantage because Luke just bought her a new phone _with _a keyboard so she can type messages twice as fast as I can. I love doing the texting thing, but it's kind of a pain on the number keypad when you've gotten used to the bigger keyboard."

"I see, "he said thoughtfully.

"Now, what were you saying before I got distracted?"

"Oh, I was just going to ask you how you felt about this whole thing with Jess coming right on the heels of your break-up with Logan."

"That's the problem. I'm not sure how I feel about it just yet. I'm still kind of processing."

"I get that. Was it at least a good kiss?" he asked.

"Yeah, she said with a smile. "It was a _great_ kiss, but I only broke up with Logan a week and a half ago. It feels too soon to be kissing another guy, especially a guy that I have an unresolved history with. I'm just so confused. I don't know if the feeling I was having when I was kissing Jess was just a remnant of our past, or if it was some new feeling, or if it was just that I was lonely because of the break-up."

"That's a tough one," her father agreed.

"Plus to top it off, I'm gonna have to spend some time hanging with him at Mom and Luke's wedding since he's the best man and I'm the maid of honor. I don't know how I'm gonna deal with seeing him in a romantic setting like that, with everybody being all gushy about them getting married. What do you think?"

"I think only you can answer that question. Whatever happens, just follow your heart."

"Hmmm, that's what Luke said when I was trying to decide what to do about Logan," she said then when she saw the uncomfortable expression on her dad's face at the mention of Luke, she again said, "I'm sorry."

"It's ok. Quit saying you're sorry. I'm working on not having a freak-out every time his name is brought up. Besides, it's good advice. He sounds like he knows what he's talking about. The main thing is that you do what makes you happy and forget about what anybody else thinks."

"I'm thinking right now, I should just stay single for a while until I figure all this out."

"That's probably a good idea," he said glad that Rory had actually shared something so personal with him and not only shared it with him, but asked for his advice. He smiled and hoped that this trend would continue in the future and that he wouldn't once again do some bonehead thing to screw it up.


	31. Chapter 31

Friday dinner at the elder Gilmore house that week was a lot less dramatic than the previous one, although there was a bit of a flare-up when Rory informed her grandparents that in spite her argument with him that they'd witnessed at the diner, she was trying to work things out with her father and was still going to allow him to pay for her senior year at Yale. They balked at first, but agreed to it when they saw that it was something that was important to her. Other than that the dinner was a lot more peaceful than the previous one. Between homework and her newspaper duties, Rory spent as much time as she could over the weekend with her mom to help curb her loneliness while she was missing Luke. During this time she told Lorelai all about the drama at Truncheon and how confused she was about the whole situation. Her mother gave her pretty much the same advice that her father had on Thursday, to follow her heart once she figured out where her heart lay and not to rush into anything with Jess as she was still healing form her break-up with Logan. Luke and April continued to get to know each other over the course of the next few days while he watched her compete against other kids her age and saw the sights of Philadelphia together. He continued the nightly ritual of calling Lorelai filling her in on the events of the day and finding out how her day had been. and Lorelai began spending excessive amounts of time at the inn and on trying to finalize wedding plans just so she didn't have to focus on how much she was missing her fiancé'. Though she welcomed his frequent calls, she missed having him there in person, seeing him smile, feeling him holding her at night as they drifted off to sleep together and just enjoying his company in general. Before she knew it, it was Tuesday morning and she was being awakened against her will on her 38th birthday.

"Mom!" Rory shouted as Lorelai groaned and tried to burrow deeper into the covers refusing to open her eyes. "Come on, get up!" When she still refused to move, two sets of hands yanked the covers off the bed giving her no choice but to give up on trying to go back to sleep.

"Goodness, Lorelai," she heard her mother's voice admonishing. "You're no easier to get out of bed now than you were as a child."

"What are you guys doing here?" Lorelai asked as she slowly crawled out of bed.

"We are here for a Gilmore girls' day of shopping and fun to help you celebrate your birthday," Rory said.

"I can't, Lorelai protested. I have to work and you have classes."

"I am playing hooky today and so are you."

"So am I," Emily added. "I cancelled all of my appointments for the day to spend time with you. Now, get dressed. You certainly can't go like that." Emily indicated the flannel shirt she'd been sleeping in. "Is that how you always sleep?"

"Not always," Lorelai replied. "But it's comfortable. I kinda stole it from Luke on our first date."

"You took one of his shirts on your first date. Isn't that a little stalkerish?"

"No, I needed something to sleep in since we spent the night at his place."

"You slept with him on your first date?" Emil gaped at her appalled. "What were you thinking?"

"You little hussy," Rory added with a smirk.

"Don't act like you didn't know, Rory. You called me the very next day and told me Babette had already called you and told you about the whole 'floor show' incident. As for what I was thinking Mom. I was thinking that he was a very nice man who I'd been attracted to forever and who knew me better than anyone else in the world. And I was thinking that we'd wasted so much time dancing around our feelings for each other that I didn't want to wait any longer."

"Come on. Trampolina," Rory said before her grandmother could say anything."Hurry up and get dressed. We have birthday plans for you."

"All right, I'm going," she said as she headed toward her closet.

After the middle Gilmore girl had dragged herself out of bed and gotten dressed, she was joined by the other two for a leisurely breakfast at the Dragonfly where Sookie was waiting with a special breakfast including a red velvet cake with the cream cheese frosting she knew her best friend adored.

"It's a little early for birthday cake, isn't it?" Lorelai said when she saw it.

"Nonsense!" Emily said. "It's your birthday. Where is it written that you can't have your cake whenever you want it?"

"I'm just saying cake is more of a dinner thing. I'm surprised you're going along with the cake for breakfast things."

"Well, you'll be otherwise occupied for dinner, so Rory and I are going to share your birthday cake with you now."

"Dinner? You mean you guys have my whole birthday planned for me."

"Along with a few other people," Sookie said with a giggle.

"Sookie!" Rory scolded her mother's best friend.

"What? I didn't say anything! I just said other people were involved in making her birthday a memorable one."

"What _other _people?" Lorelai queried, hoping for some clue from one of the three of them for what was in store for her."

"You just never mind that," Rory said."You're being kidnapped, pampered and spoiled for your birthday, so just sit back and enjoy the ride. Now, blow out your candles before they melt all over your birthday breakfast cake and don't forget to make a wish."

"Ok," she said. As she blew out her candles, she knew just what to wish for, even though she knew it wouldn't come true. More than anything what she wanted was to be able to spend at least part of her birthday with Luke.

"Good," Emily said. "Now, let's get this cake cut so we can move on. I must say, Sookie, this looks delicious."

"Thanks you, Emily," Sookie replied. "It should be for all the time I spent on it."

The four of them sat around the table eating Lorelai's red velvet birthday cake, while chatting lightly. Lorelai looked around at her best friend, her daughter and her mother and was moved that they had thought to do this for her to keep her mind off of the fact that Luke couldn't be there for her birthday. After the cake was finished and they were sitting drinking their coffee, Michel entered the dining room.

"Your car is here, Mrs. Gilmore," He said to Emily. "You wanted me to let you know the moment it arrived."

"Thank you, Michel," she replied. Well, Ladies, shall we go?"

Lorelai, Rory and Emily rose from the table and Lorelai noticed that Sookie made no move to join them.

"Aren't you coming too, Sookie? I thought you were in on the whole birthday kidnapping plot."

"Oh, I was, but I'm not coming. My birthday present to you is staying here, looking after the inn while you're gone so you can have a worry-free birthday. That and the cake. Have fun!" She said with a smile, knowing exactly what was in store for her best friend.

"Ok," she said skeptically as she was dragged out the door by her mother and daughter. She gasped when she saw the stretch limo parked in the inn's driveway, a driver patiently waiting. "A limo! Oh my God, you guys weren't kidding about the pampering.

"Well, come, Lorelai," Emily said. "Let's not keep the driver waiting. We have another birthday appointment to keep." She gave her daughter a gentle push to get her moving.

"Ok, Ok," Lorelai said. "No need to shove! I'm going!"

The next stop on the Gilmore girls' adventure was a beauty salon in Hartford where they all had their hair done, along with manicures, pedicures and facials.

"Man, you guys really _are_ spoiling me on my birthday," Lorelai said as she sat under the hair dryer with her mother and daughter on either side of her. "This place is great!"

"Yes, they're very good here," Emily agreed. "I wouldn't have anyone else touching my hair."

"Doesn't this throw off your standing Wednesday appointment?" Lorelai asked, knowing that her mother was a creature of habit.

"I can make an exception just this once for my daughter's birthday."

"Who are you and what have you done with my mother?" Lorelai jested.

"Why is this such a big deal to you? So, I'm having my hair and nails done a day early. Life as we know it will not stop because of this."

"No," Rory said. "The earth will just start rotating backwards and cats and dogs will start living in perfect harmony." Rory grinned as she joined in with her mother's teasing of her grandmother.

"Don't you think you're being a little overdramatic?"

"I don't know, Grandma. You're pretty rigid about your beauty regiment. This could be the beginning of the apocalypse."

"Oh, wait," Lorelai added with a dramatic wave of her arm toward the front window of the shop. "Look out that window over there. I think I see the four horsemen now!" This induced a giggle from Rory and a scowl from Emily.

"I am never brining you two here again," she said with a shake of her head.

After the beauty salon, the three women were chauffeured to the mall where they grabbed a quick bit to eat in the food court, and then commenced the promised shopping trip. Lorelai was escorted by Rory and Emily into a large department store. Lorelai hesitated.

"Wait, Mom," she said. "This place is way too expensive and Luke will kill me if I spend any more money on frivolous shopping."

"You're not going to have to worry about that. You won't be spending any money in here."

"That's right, Mom. _We _are spending our money on you," Rory said as she linked her arm in her mother's and tried to force her to move.

"But you can't afford a place like this, Kid," Lorelai protested. "You're a broke college student, remember?"

"I've got it covered. Don't you worry about it. Now, come on," she said tugging on her mother's arm. "When Lorelai still refused to budge, she looked at Emily. "Grandma, a little help here, please," she pleaded.

Emily grabbed her daughter's other arm and together they forced her into the store toward the Women's Apparel department. "Come on, "Emily said. "Let's find you a nice dress for your birthday dinner tonight."

"But…" Lorelai protested.

"No buts, Missy," Rory said. "Move it!"

"I just don't want you spending money you can't afford."

"I _can _afford it. Dad's been a lot more generous lately, since we've been hanging out more and more. I've totally got it covered. Not pick something out for your fancy dinner tonight."

"My birthday dinner is fancy?" Lorelai asked, hoping for a hint to what was planned for the evening.

"That's all the information you get," Emily said. "Now let's start shopping. You need a new dress for tonight."

"I've got plenty of nice dresses at home," she said, starting to protest again.

"None of which is suitable for where you're going tonight. Just start looking until you find something you like."

"Well, it would help to know where I was being shanghaied to so I can pick an appropriate dress."

"Mom, just pick something," Rory said. "We'll tell you if it suits your dinner plans tonight."

"I never knew something as funs as shopping could be this much work," she grumbled as she started looking through the racks. She found a black dress that caught her eye. "Ooh, this is nice," she said as she held it up to herself.

"What do you think, Grandma?" Rory asked.

"I think I'll need to see how she looks wearing it first. Go on, Lorelai. Go try it on. I want to see it on you before I give you my opinion."

"Ok," Lorelai said with a smile as she headed off to the dressing room.

"Lord. Your mother's exhausting," Emily said.

"Not as exhausting as your daughter," Rory quipped and they shared a laugh as they waited for her to change. "So, she doesn't seem to have a clue about the plans tonight."

"That's a good thing. It would ruin the surprise. We've all put a lot of work into planning this and I'd hate for the surprise to be blown before it's time."

"I agree. It's better to keep her in the dark until she gets there."

Lorelai walked out of the dressing room and did a dramatic twirl and said, "So, what do you think?" The dress hung just below her knees and had a plunging neckline with a slid up the left leg exposing a little flesh without it being too much.

"I think that's the dress," Rory said. "What do you think?" She asked her grandmother.

"It looks nice," Emily said.

"It's not too slutty?" Lorelai asked self-consciously.

"Just slutty enough, I'd say," Rory said.

"It's the perfect dress for tonight, Lorelai, "Emily agreed. "Now, got get changed and we'll find you some shoes and a purse to go with it."

"Man, you're bossy today," Lorelai said.

When they had finished their shopping, they returned to Stars Hollow where Rory and Emily were anxiously waiting for Lorelai to come out of the bathroom with her new dress on.

"Mom, come on!" Rory yelled through the door "You're gonna be late if you don't hurry up!"

"What do you mean I'll be late? It's still early."

"Not for where you're going!"

"All right, already!" I'm coming out now." She exited the bathroom. "So, do I look presentable for wherever this mysterious place I'm going is?"

"You look beautiful, Lorelai," Emily said. "Now, hurry up. The driver is waiting for you."

"Only me?" she questioned noticing that the two of them were still wearing the same clothes from their shopping trip.

"Yes, Mom," Rory replied. "Only you. Our work is done here."

"So, I'm having my birthday dinner alone? I feel a little stupid getting all dolled up, especially at 4:30 in the afternoon to spend the evening of my birthday by myself."

"You won't be by yourself, Lorelai," Emily said. "We told you there were others involved in planning your birthday and you'll find out whom as soon as you get to where you're going."

"But you'll never find out if you don't get your dolled up ass downstairs and into that limo," Rory said thrusting her new purse at her. "While you were primping, I transferred the stuff from your old purse to your new one, so you're all set. Now go! I'll call you tomorrow to find out how it went."

"Ok," she said still wondering what they were up to, but she did as she was told and allowed the chauffeur to take her wherever it was they had planned. After two hours of incessantly bugging the poor driver with questions like "How much farther?" and "Are we there yet?" the limo finally pulled to a stop.

The driver turned his head to the back seat and said, "We've arrived, Miss Gilmore."

Before she could say anything, the door was opened and not by the driver as he was still sitting in his seat. Lorelai had just turned to look at the open door when a familiar hand reached for hers, pulled her out of the car and into a passionate embrace. She melted into Luke's arms as he poured all the longing he'd felt over the past week into his fiery kisses. When they broke apart, both breathless, Lorelai looked up into his cool blue eyes and said, "Wow! I didn't see that coming. I can't believe you're here, or I'm here….we're here…where the hell is here?" She looked around trying to get her bearings.

"You can't tell where we are?"Luke said with a chuckle.

"Well, I hadn't had a chance to look around since _someone_ started mauling me as soon as I got out of the car," she said with a smile. She continued to look around and it dawned on her where they were. "We're in New York!'

"Yep," Luke replied.

"You hate New York."

"But you don't, besides this is the home of the show you've been wanting to see for a year," he said gesturing to Gershwin Theatre behind him.

Lorelai glanced up at the theatre and gasped. "_Wicked? _You bought me tickets to _Wicked?" _she squealed in delight.

Luke nodded. "Happy birthday. Now, come on. The show will be starting soon," he said offering her his arm.

"What is it with everybody bossing me around all day?" she quipped as she linked her arm with his and they proceeded into the theatre.

"It's good for you," he said. "You're always bossing everybody around, so it's good everyone in a while to give you a taste of your own medicine."

They were ushered to their seats and waited for the show to begin. As they sat their together, Luke spent more of his time watching Lorelai watching the musical than actually watching it himself. He was delighted by her enraptured face as she enjoyed the show. During the fifteen minute intermission, they found a semi-private corner of the lobby in which they could steal a few kisses, before returning to the witches of OZ. When the show was over, they walked outside where Luke opened the door of the limo for his fiancée and climbed in after her. As soon as the door was closed, he took her in his arms again and kissed her like he'd been wanting to do all week. She kissed him back with equal fervor until they were both struggling to catch their breath.

"We'd better slow this down a little," Luke said breathlessly.

"Why? I've missed you so much," Lorelai said as she stroked his face that was free of the usual stubble.

"Don't you remember what happened the last time we were in a limo in New York?"

"I remember," she said with a wicked grin. "But what's wrong with letting it happen again?"

"We don't have time. We have dinner reservations at this place your father recommended."

"You got a restaurant recommendation from my dad?"

He nodded. "He knows this area better than I do since he spends a lot of time here on business. It's not like I come to this crazy city all that often."

"Ooh, do the New York rant again like you did last time!"

"No."

"Please? I loved the New York rant," she pouted.

"No, this is your birthday celebration, so it's strictly rant-free. Besides, I think we're there," he said as the limo slowed to a stop outside _il Buco_. They entered the restaurant where they were led to a table in the cellar where the space was less confined and there was a more romantic atmosphere.

When they were seated, Lorelai looked around at the antique furnishings. "Wow! This place is great! What kind of food do they serve here?"

"Your dad described it as Mediterranean-Italian. He said that they change their menu on a regular basis according to what's in season. Apparently the owners and the chef are very picky about making sure they use the freshest ingredients according to old world style."

"Wow," Lorelai said again. Their server arrived asking if they'd like anything from the bar which both declined and educated them on the menu for the evening. After they'd ordered and the server departed Lorelai looked at Luke and said, "You could've ordered a drink, you know. Just because I can't have a real drink, that doesn't mean that you shouldn't."

"I'm good. Besides, I want to have a clear head for the rest of tonight's events," he said with an impish grin.

Lorelai grinned back and said, "So, this is all just a big seduction plot? 'Cause you didn't have to go through all of this, including sitting through a musical just to get me into bed. When it comes to you, I'm kind of easy."

"You're definitely _not _easy. You're actually kinda hard." Luke blushed and mentally kicked himself for his choice of words, knowing Lorelai would jump on it.

"Actually, the _hard_ part is more your territory," she said mischievously. "I noticed that when you kissed me the way you did when I first got here."

"I'm just glad my jacket's long enough to cover up certain…things," he said with a chuckle. "Have I told you how beautiful you look tonight?"

"You look pretty good yourself," she said glad that she'd coerced him into taking some dressier clothes along on his trip. She leaned in to kiss him and as the kiss turned deeper, they were interrupted by the server returning with their food.

"Sorry," Luke said, shifting in his seat.

"No problem," their server replied setting their food in front of them. "I get used to it in here. Newlyweds?"

"Not yet," they said together and both laughed. "Five weeks from Saturday," Lorelai explained.

"Congratulations! Enjoy your meal."

As they began to eat, Lorelai looked over at Luke who noticed her watching him, and said, "What? Don't you like your food?"

"No. It's wonderful! I just still can't believe this! How did you pull all this off?"

"I had a lot of help; your mom, your dad, Rory, Sookie, a couple of the other parents on the trip."

"Other parents?"

"Well, yeah, since I'm supposed to be helping with the chaperoning duties. I asked a couple of the other dads if they could cover for me for tonight. I couldn't stand the thought of us not being together on your birthday. I didn't think it'd really be feasible for me to drive four hours to Stars Hollow or for you to drive to Philadelphia on your birthday, so I thought it might work out if we met in the middle somewhere, hence New York. Then I remembered when we were here last year that you'd mentioned you were interested in seeing the musical we just watched. So, I ordered the tickets, rented a car, hired a limo to pick you up and here we are."

"Yeah, I remember wanting to see this show, but _Spamalot_ won out over W_icked _at the time," She was impressed that he'd remembered that she had expressed interest in the show they'd just seen, especially seeing as how he wasn't that fond of musicals. "So, tell me the truth, how much did you hate the musical?"

"It wasn't that bad, though, now I'm feeling the uncontrollable urge to watch _The Wizard of OZ _again."

Lorelai laughed as they continued their meal, talking and joking and just generally enjoying being together again. When their dinner was concluded, the driver dropped them off at a hotel where Luke had rented a room for the night. As soon as the door was closed behind them, Lorelai launched herself at Luke, kissing him urgently and tugging impatiently at the black jacket she'd packed for him. He pulled back a little, took her hands in his and said, "Lorelai, slow down. We don't have to rush. We've got all night."

"But I want you, now," she protested. "I've missed you so much and I just need to feel you."

"I know," he said as he placed her hands lightly against his chest and caressed her cheek. "I feel the same way, but I'm not going anywhere until the morning, so we can take our time." He kissed her lightly, then lowered his head to trail feather-light kisses along her jaw and her neck while he ran his hand along her partially exposed left leg. Lorelai gasped as his touch, feeling the need that had been building for a week. "I love this dress," he murmured low against her throat. Lorelai couldn't take it anymore. She lowered her hands from his chest to his firm butt to urge him closer to her feeling the evidence of his desire for her. Luke lost his carefully built up control and crushed her mouth with his after she did this, lifting her up so that she was straddling him and carried her to the bed, where he laid her down and lowered himself on top of her.

"What happened to taking it show?" she asked with a wicked grin, reveling in the feel of his weight pressing her into the mattress.

"Screw it," he said as he again captured her lips with his. "I want you now," he repeated her earlier words as he started to rid them both of their clothing.

As they lat spent in each other's arms a little later, Lorelai looked at him and said with a satisfied smile, "Well, happy birthday to me."

Luke laughed and asked, "So, you're having a good birthday?"

"Very, _very _good," she said with a naughty grin. "We should've skipped the 'dinner and a show' bit and just gone straight to the good stuff."

"I take it back, you _are_ easy," he said planting a kiss on her lips.

"Hey!' she said slapping at him playfully. She turned serious for a moment and asked, "So, when do you have to go back?"

"I'm supposed to be back in Philly by ten in the morning. But I'll be home sometime Saturday, though I still don't know if I'll be there in enough time to make it to Lane's wedding. It's gonna depend on how quick we can get the kids packed up and piled onto the bus. I'm kinda torn about it to tell you the truth because as much as I want to go to the wedding with you, Saturday is also April's birthday and Anna made it very clear that she wants April home as soon as we land in Woodbridge."

"I understand that. She hasn't seen her kid in over a week," she recalled how much she'd missed Rory when she'd been on her trip to Washington with her student council. "You know it hadn't occurred to me that Lane's wedding and April's birthday are the same day. I mean, I knew April's birthday was the 29th, but I hadn't really remembered that that was this Saturday's date. I've been so busy with work and wedding planning and working on Lane's dress that I didn't really connect the dots. This has gotta be rough on you."

"The thing is if we get back early enough, I can still go to the wedding with you, but I'll miss out on spending time with my kid on the first birthday I've been allowed to be in her life for, but on the other hand if we get back later, I'll be able to hang with her on her birthday, but then I'll miss the wedding and being with you."

"Hey, whichever way it goes, why don't we ask Anna if we can have a belated birthday dinner or party or something for her? You know I'm famous for my birthday party planning skills."

"You'd do that for April?" he asked, deeply touched by the fact that she was so accepting of his surprise daughter.

"Yeah, I bet Rory and my mom would help too."

"Your mom? I think that's something we should avoid. I was at the last birthday party she planned and I don't think that would be April's cup of tea."

"I don't know, Luke. She might surprise you. My mother seems to be coming around about acknowledging that we have different tastes. She's not even acting openly revolted by the fact that we're having an outdoor wedding. Although she may change her mind once our wedding day is actually here."

Luke began thinking about all the plans they'd been making for their wedding and smiled, "You know something. June third can't come soon enough for me."

"Me either," she said. "Speaking of _coming _soon, how much sleep you think you can skip tonight and still be ok to drive in the morning?" she asked mischievously as she reached under the covers and stroked him teasingly.

Luke groaned at her touch. "Who needs sleep?" He said as he flipped her over and again showed her how much he'd been missing her.

AN: Just a quick note to say thanks for all the support and explain that this chsapter is as close as I get to writing smut, becasuse to be honest, I kinda suck at it. I'm much better at the innuendo thing. Thanks to everyone who's been reading and reviewing.


	32. Chapter 32

Lorelai walked into the kitchen of the Dragonfly the morning after her birthday and was barely inside the door before Sookie started peppering her with questions.

"So how was your birthday? Did you have a good time? How was the show? Did you have a nice dinner?"

"Sookie, slow down," Lorelai said to her excitable friend. "I can only answer one question at a time."

"I know. I'm sorry. It's just the idea of you and Luke having a romantic evening in New York and a sexy reunion date at that just gets my heart racing a little. I have so little romance in my life right now. What's wrong with wanting a little vicarious romance through by best friend? Come on, spill."

"Oh, Honey, Doesn't Jackson romance you anymore?"

"He tries, but with the farm and the inn and the kids, it's hard to work romance into our lives. Lately it's 'come on, Hon, the kids are asleep, so we can do it,'" Sookie explained.

"_Very _romantic," Lorelai joked.

"Don't mock. You'll be there before you know it. Once the baby's born, you'll be too damn tired to think about anything but trying to catch up on sleep whenever you can, not being whisked off in a limo for a night on the town in New York."

"I know. It was so sweet of Luke to plan all of this. The show was amazing, the dinner was amazing and Luke was…"

"Amazing?" Sookie asked with a suggestive grin.

"_Beyond _amazing. I'll give you a little hint of just how amazing." She loosened the silk scarf she had tied around her neck and showed her the evidence Luke had left of their previous night's passion.

"No way! Luke did that?"

"No this was done by Larry, my other lover, the one who keeps a penthouse apartment for out clandestine rendezvous. I managed to sneak away from Luke in the middle of the night, 'cause he sleeps like the dead."

Sookie rolled her eyes and said, "Smart ass!"

"You must be talking about Lorelai," Emily's voice interjected from the doorway.

Lorelai giggled and said, "I have a talent for it. Besides being a smart ass is better than being a dumbass."

"That's true," Sookie said.

"Good lord, Lorelai," Emily said as she noticed the love bite on her daughter's neck. "Well, it seems you enjoyed your birthday dinner."

"I did. And the dessert," she added with an impish grin.

This time it was Emily's turn to roll her eyes. She took a closer look at her daughter's neck. "I can't believe you let Luke brand you like that. It's completely tasteless!"

"I don't know. Luke said I tasted pretty good last night." She and Sookie both giggled at this while Emily simply glared.

"But what does that say about you when you're walking around town sporting a hickey the size of a golf ball?"

"It says that I've got a very sexy, passionate man in my life who loves me and wants to make me happy." When her mother simply frowned at her, she added, "Relax, Mom. It's not like I was planning on showing it off, hence the scarf in my hand." She wrapped the scarf around her neck again and said. "See. There. All covered up. Now you don't have to look at it anymore."

"Good," Emily said with a nod and turned to Sookie. "So, are we ready to start talking seating charts?"

"Yep," Sookie said. "Let's just go out to the dining room where we'll have more room. I wanted to show you the table settings too." Sookie and Emily continued to talk about wedding plans while Lorelai stared after them as they left the kitchen, amazed by how her mother could just switch topics so quickly and that her mother and her best friend were actually working together to make her wedding day special.

True to her word, Rory had called her for the details of her birthday evening and in typical Lorelai fashion her mother had teased her by giving her more details than she wanted.

"Hey," her daughter said, "You can feel free to keep all the dirty stuff to yourself. I just want to hear the highlights."

"Are you sure, 'cause you know your future step-daddy is good with his hands in other ways than just fixing stuff."

"Ewww"

"Ooh, and he's also good and using his mouth for stuff other than the famous Luke rants," she added with a giggle.

"Again, I say ewww."

"And this thing he does with his hips…"

"I'm hanging up, now," Rory said teasingly.

"Ok, I'll stop."

"So, you had a good time on your birthday?"

"Yeah, I did. I still can't believe you guys put all that together for me," she said deeply touched by the effort.

"Really, it was all Luke's idea. We just helped a little. We _so _thought you were going to ruin the surprise when you wouldn't stop asking questions. I'm glad you didn't."

"Yeah, I am too. I was starting to get a little annoyed after two hours in a limo not knowing what was going on. Then when we got there and Luke was the one opening my door and he just kissed me like there was no tomorrow, I was blown away. I felt like Scarlett O'Hara the first time she got kissed by Rhett Butler or some other old movie heroine who just got swept off her feet."

"That's sweet that Luke wanted to make your birthday something special even though he couldn't be here for it."

"Plus, he purposely spent an evening in New York for me when he hates the big city. That's the true definition of romance."

"You definitely bagged a good one," Rory said her voice tinged with sadness. She was happy for her mom, but sad for herself. Guys her age didn't really get the romance thing, not that she had a guy right now, but she longed to someday have a relationship that strong.

"Hey," her mother said sensing her daughter's sadness. "There are other good ones out there. You just haven't met the right one yet. He's out there for you, I promise."

"I don't know. Looking at my track record, I may not know the right one when I do meet him. There was Dean, who cheated on his wife to be with me, and Jess, who told me he loved me then bailed, and Logan, who started sleeping around the first time things weren't going right with us. I'm starting to wonder if there's a guy like Luke out there for me."

"Come on, Hon, there is. Look at how many duds I went through before I found Luke."

"Yeah, but you didn't have to go through all that. You could've had Luke anytime you wanted him if you'd just given him a chance. He's loved you forever."

"Hey, I thought about it five years ago, but you told me I couldn't date Luke."

"Because I knew _your _track record and I just didn't want you breaking Luke's heart. You weren't ready for Luke then."

"You know, I've been thinking about that lately. The last ten years or so when I purposely sabotaged every relationship I had, I always thought it was because I was waiting for your dad to grow up, but I've come to realize that it wasn't your dad I was waiting for. I was waiting for Luke to make his move. I think on some level I always knew that it would be me and Luke, even though I told everybody they were crazy when they suggested such a thing."

"Even Grandma knew it," Rory pointed out.

"Yeah, I know. I was stupid. The biggest thing that scared me about the idea of hooking up with Luke was ruining this beautiful friendship we had if it didn't work out."

"But now you've got both in one guy. Do you know how amazing that is?"

"I definitely get that. It still amazes me that in just a little over five weeks, I'm going to be married to my best friend," she said with a little sigh.

"You're not getting cold feet, are you?" Rory asked a little concerned.

"No, my feet are nice and warm. In fact they're 'three pairs of thick wool socks' kind of warm. I'm happy, Kid, really happy."

"Good. He better keep making you happy or I'll have to kick his ass."

Lorelai laughed at this and they continued their conversation, Rory telling her mom all the details of her visits with her dad and how he'd bought her a new phone and a matching one for himself and how he was now texting her obsessively and Lorelai told her all about the musical and how well-behaved Luke had been for being in a city he hated. They again talked about Jess and the surprise kissing and how Rory was going to deal with it when she saw him on Sunday and at the wedding in June. They talked until Michel came running into the kitchen demanding Lorelai's attention as Sookie was still occupied with Emily in the dining room.

"Listen, Kid, I need to let you go before Michel has a stroke, but I'll see you Friday when you get here.

"Ok, Mom. See ya," she said as she hung up the phone smiling a little at how happy her mom was with Luke. It seemed like for the first time, they were both getting their lives together at the same time. Sure she was still lonely after the break-up with Logan, but the pain was a little less every day. She hoped with time it would go away altogether and she'd be able to find a guy who would be her Luke and that she'd be able to recognize him when she saw him.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Friday morning, Lorelai had just stepped onto the porch at Kim's Antiques after dropping off Lane's wedding dress when Mrs. Kim came screaming after her.

"Lorelai! Wait! Come back!" she said frantically as she caught up with her. "What do you mean, Luke's out of town?"

"Uh, well, I mean Luke's left town. He's gone far away from town. Town's there, and Luke's over here," she gestured with her hands as she explained.

"So he's not coming to the wedding with you?"

"Most likely not. He's supposed to be back sometime tomorrow, but it may not be in time for the wedding.

"You mean you're coming alone, unescorted?" she asked in a panic.

"Well, Rory'll be there, so-"

"No, she won't like it!" Mrs. Kim starting wringing her hands lost in thought.

"Who won't?" Lorelai asked in confusion.

"You can't come alone," She said firmly. "An unmarried woman of a certain age, unescorted, wearing the clothes you tend to wear, and given the fact that you're pregnant. People will think things. _Bad _things.

"Like what?"

"Like you're a tramp and possibly for sale," Mrs. Kim said bluntly.

"Wow," Lorelai said a little stunned. "Suddenly, _Footloose_, not seeming so silly."

"What are we going to do?"

"Well, I guess first of all, we should agree on a price," she quipped.

"You have to find someone to bring you. You have to find a man."

"In one day? Are you kidding me? It took me this long to find Luke!"

"My daughter wants you at her wedding, fine. But if you're to come, then you need to come with a man!" She started to head back inside, but turned back. "And Kirk does not count!" she added and went back in the house.

Lorelai sighed and said to herself, "Lorelai Gilmore, disappointing mothers since 1968."

Later that night, Lorelai stumbled into the crap shack supporting her tipsy daughter who was having trouble standing up on her own after leaving Lane's bachelorette party.

"Come on, Kid," Lorelai said. "Just a little farther and you'll be in your bed."

"My bed's too far," Rory mumbled as she flopped on the couch face down.

"Rory?"

"mmmph," her daughter mumbled incoherently.

"Nothing. Sleep tight, Sweets," Lorelai said as she climbed the stairs, changed clothes and crawled into bed on Luke's side as she'd been doing for the past two weeks, smiling with the knowledge that this would be the last night she'd be sleeping in their bed alone.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

A little after three AM Luke pulled his truck into the driveway behind Rory's Prius, got out and let himself into the house trying to be quiet about it, knowing that the girls would be asleep and not wanting to risk waking them. As he walked by the couch, he smiled when he noticed that Rory was sound asleep there curled up in a little ball like a cat. He walked to the closet, grabbed a blanket and covered her up. He knelt down, smoothed her hair out of her face, and lightly kissed her forehead and then turned toward the stairs to join his fiancée in their bed. When he walked into their bedroom he noticed Lorelai was sleeping on his side of the bed clutching his pillow. He toed off his shoes and began to get undressed as quietly as he could, trying not to disturb her sleep when he knew that with carrying twins, and she needed all the rest she could get. As he removed his flannel and the t-shirt beneath it, he heard her softly say, "You better be getting naked, Buddy."

"Oh, hey," Luke said. "I was trying not to wake you. Go back to sleep."

"Not in the mood for sleep anymore, not since I heard your truck roar in," She said as she sat up and reached for him. He sat on the bed beside her and kissed her as she ran her hands across his bare chest. "I'm so glad to see you," she said as she pulled back from his kiss and tugged at the waistband of his jeans, fumbling in the dark for his zipper. "Now, get these off so I can see _all _of you."

"Yes, Ma'am," he said as he complied and crawled naked in bed beside her, reaching for the flannel shirt she was wearing and pulling it over her head, leaving her in just her panties which she quickly stripped off and discarded. "God, you're beautiful," he said in amazement as he laid her back down on the bed beside him. He proceeded to make love to her the way he'd wanted to on her birthday before things had gotten out of control due to their too long separation. They clung to each other relishing every kiss, every touch, both elated to just be together in their own bed.

"I'm glad you're home," she said with a blissful smile, holding him tight as her breathing slowed later. "Not that I'm complaining, but why areyou home? I thought you weren't going to make it back until tomorrow."

"Technically, it _is _tomorrow," he said indicating the clock.

"You know what I mean."

"Well, we decided that since we'd already stayed a day longer than planned due to the food poisoning thing, that we'd just cut out some of the activities that were planned for the day. Besides the kids were getting restless and so were the parents who were left at home. So, we got the kids packed up and on the bus early, called all the parents and told them when to meet us at the school and here I am."

"I'm glad."

"I'll tell you something, if this is the kind of greeting I'm gonna get when I come home, maybe I should go away more often," he quipped.

"Bite your tongue! You can never go anywhere again. The next trip you're taking, you're taking with me on our honeymoon in five weeks."

"Or we could just stay right here in our bed for two weeks, lock all the doors and pretend we went somewhere. Now that I'm back in our bed, I don't think I want to leave it again."

"That sounds nice, but you know it would never work in this town, especially with Babette as a next door neighbor, plus Rory will be home for the summer. She's only got a couple of weeks of classes left now."

"By the way, why is she sleeping on the couch instead of in her bed?"

"Bachelorette party, too much to drink, which led to not walking straight and feeling the need to just collapse on the first available spot."

"Ahhh, so how was dinner with you parents last night?"

"Oh, I didn't tell you about that. My parents actually let us skip it this week for the wedding, but I kinda had to promise them something else to make up for it." she said sheepishly.

"Why do I not like the sound of that?"

"Probably because it means that they'll be having dinner here with us on Sunday."

"Jeez," he groaned. "I guess that means a dinner that I'll be cooking."

"Yes, I did promise that there would be a home-cooked meal and since we both know I'm hopeless in the kitchen…"

"Great, one more opportunity for your mother to start mocking me again."

"There will be no mocking. There will just be a nice family dinner, you, me, Rory, and my parents and if we keep the topic to our wedding plans, we should be ok," she said. "Speaking of weddings, remind me in the morning to call Michel and tell him I know longer need a date to the wedding."

"You made a date for the wedding?"

"I _had_ to. Mrs. Kim was all freaked out and wouldn't let me go to Lane's wedding if I didn't have a date and since I didn't know what time you were going to be home, I had to have a backup plan in case you didn't make it in time."

"So you picked a whining surly Frenchman to take my place?"

"Hon, Michel could never take your place, but I was desperate. I couldn't come to the wedding alone or the Koreans would think I was cheap and easy."

"Easy maybe, but I'd hardly call you cheap the way you spend money on my credit cards."

She giggled, and said, "If you don't want me using your credit cards, don't give them to me."

"I don't mind handing you the card once in a while, but there is a thing called moderation that could be useful too."

"Moderation? Me? In regards to shopping? Hello? Have you met me?"

Luke laughed and planted a kiss on the top of her head. "Yeah, I knew it was a long shot. Not to change the subject, but Rory called me the other day and asked me if I was ok with the fact that her dad was going to be her date for Lane's wedding."

"She did?"

"Yeah, she said she didn't want to make things awkward for me if I _did _make it back in enough time to go."

"That's so sweet. She really loves you, you know. So, what did you tell her?"

"I told her not to worry about it. The way she talked, it seems like he's really making an effort to be a bigger part of her life and that makes her happy. How can I say no to that?"

"Awww, Look at you, being the bigger man," she said in a teasing tone, but also proud of his restraint.

"He just better not break her heart again or I'll have to kill him."

"It seems like they're doing ok. He called me yesterday to ask me if it was ok that he bought her one of those Sidekicks after he'd already bought it for her."

"Sidekicks?"

"Messaging phone, similar to the one you bought April. I told him he didn't need to ask my permission to buy his daughter a gift."

"While we're on the subject of daughters and gifts, I talked to Anna about the whole birthday thing when she picked up April tonight and she said if we want we can throw her a birthday party. She was only planning on a dinner with her grandmother because she doesn't have time for the big party planning thing and since I just met a whole bunch of her friends, she thought it was a nice idea that we give her a real party given the fact that thirteen is a big birthday. So I was thinking if it's not too soon, maybe we could do that next weekend."

"That'll work," Lorelai said excitedly at the thought of getting to plan a party for her future step-daughter.

"We really doing it, aren't we?" Luke said with a contented sigh.

"Doing what?"She asked as she raised her head to look up at him.

"Getting it together, making plans for our lives, blending two families, everything."

"Yes, yes we are," she said as she snuggled back into Luke's arms and began to fall into a peaceful sleep.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The following morning, Luke was in his usual spot in the kitchen fixing breakfast for his girls when Rory dragged herself into the room, collapsed into a chair and laid her head on the table with a groan.

Luke looked at her, shook his head and said, "You don't look so good, Kid."

"Don't feel good," she muttered into the table's surface not daring to move her head.

"That's the danger of overindulging," he said with a stern look as Lorelai walked into the room.

"Wow, it's hangover city in here," she said looking at her unmoving daughter.

"Shut up," Rory grumbled as the doorbell rang. "Ow! Make it stop," she said about the too loud noise.

"I got it," Lorelai said and headed to the door as Luke approached Rory with a steaming mug. She opened the door to find Christopher on the other side. "What are you doing here so early? The wedding's not until this afternoon."

"I know," he replied, but I thought I might take Rory out to breakfast if she's up for it."

"That's debatable at the moment."

"What do you mean?"

"Follow me, I'll show you what I mean," as she lead him into the kitchen where Luke was trying to help his hung-over surrogate daughter.

"Come on, Kid. Pick your head up," he said the mug still in his hands.

"Huh-uh," Rory protested. "If I lift my head, I'll throw up."

"That's what this is for. It's peppermint tea to help settle your stomach, but you can't drink if you're face down."

Rory slowly raised her head off the table and reached for the mug, "Thanks."

"Now, sip slowly to make sure it doesn't come right back up. I'm making some pancakes too. I figured you might need them with all you drank last night."

She did as she was told, and then said, "I need coffee."

"No coffee until we're sure you can keep that down. Coffee will only upset your stomach more."

Christopher had watched all of this in silence, feeling a little out of place. "Hangover?" he questioned finally.

"Yeah," Luke replied. "A little too much drinking last night at Lane's bachelorette party," he said stiffly, not liking that Christopher was invading his domain, but trying to be tolerant for Rory's sake. He turned back to the stove to finish the pancakes.

"A _lot _too much drinking," Rory said. "I've never been this hung-over in my life.

"I've been there a few times, myself," her father said with a slightly uncomfortable laugh. "There've been sometimes when I thought I'd never get away from the toilet."

"Speaking of that," Luke said to Lorelai as he handed another mug. "I made one for you too, since you were getting sick again this morning."

"Thank you," Lorelai replied as she kissed him lightly, and then sat at the table next to Rory, while Christopher still lingered in the doorway awkwardly. "These little brats of yours sure seem to enjoy making Mommy sick."

"So, is that how it is?" Luke joked. "When they're making you sick, they're just mine?"

"They?" Christopher queried.

"Yeah," Lorelai answered. "We found out a couple of weeks ago that we're having twins."

"Twins, wow!"

"Yeah, that was pretty much my reaction too," Luke said as he placed a plate of pancakes in front of each of the girls. "Are you hungry, Christopher? I made plenty. I know how these two like to eat." He was determined to behave himself around Christopher, but still wanted to let him know who always took care of Lorelai and Rory.

"Hey!" Lorelai protested. "I'm trying to feed your kids here."

"What was your excuse before you were pregnant?" he joked. He then turned back to Christopher, "So, pancakes?"

"That's ok. I should get out of here. I just came to see if Rory wanted to go out for breakfast with her old man," Christopher said reminding Luke who Rory's father was, "but you've clearly got your own thing going on here. I don't want to intrude."

"Well, you're already here and there's food, so if you're hungry, you might as well eat. There's kinda no point for you to leave just to come back later to pick Rory up," he said filling another two plates with pancakes and setting one at the empty place next to Rory while he sat in the one next to Lorelai.

"Ok, if you insist," he said awkwardly as he sat next to his daughter. It was not lost on him that Luke had purposely seated himself next to Lorelai. He watched as Lorelai reached for Luke's hand and gave it a gentle squeeze, acknowledging silently that she was grateful for Luke being so generous to him, probably against his better judgment. He felt a momentary pang of jealousy as he realized that the two of them had a way of communicating what was on their minds without having to say a word. That was something he'd never had with anyone.

"So, Dad," Rory began to try to break the uncomfortable silence that had fallen over the room. "How's Gigi?"

"She's fine. Growing like a weed," he replied.

"I was just wondering. I haven't seen her forever and she _is _my sister."

"We'll have to change that the next time we make plans to hang out. Maybe we could take a trip to the park or something so you two can spend some time together."

"That'd be nice," Rory said.

The breakfast continued just as awkwardly as it had started, all of them trying to make polite small talk without saying what was really on their minds as none of them wanted to risk starting another screaming match and destroying the semblance of calm. During their breakfast, Michel had called telling Lorelai that he couldn't possibly make it to the wedding because he was going to be spending the day with Celine Dion. She acted disappointed to make him feel better, knowing that it was better to keep Michel happy, but was relieved that he'd already made other plans for the day, knowing that he'd have gotten his feelings hurt if she'd cancelled on him. As surly as he was, he was also very sensitive.

When the breakfast was done and the kitchen cleaned up, Luke and Lorelai had gone upstairs together to change for the wedding, while Rory had gone to her room to do the same, leaving Christopher wandering aimlessly around the living room while he waited. He looked at the pictures that adorned the walls and the mantle noticing that most were of Rory at various ages and that several of the pictures had Luke included. He then noticed the one of Luke and Lorelai from Liz's wedding and how happy she seemed. He felt another stab of jealousy as he realized that Luke obviously gave her something that he didn't when they were together. He'd never seen her smile like that when he'd been with her. He walked over to Luke's trophy shelf and looked at all of his accomplishments, realizing that he really didn't know anything about his daughter's future step-father other than what she'd told him. The last few times they'd talked, she'd been very careful not to mention Luke any more than necessary and he'd made a conscious effort not to ask about Lorelai, not wanting his daughter to think that was the only reason he was coming around.

Rory exited her room in her dress for the wedding and yelled up the stairs, "I'm coming up there to use the bathroom so I hope you're both decent! And you better not be doing anything dirty!"

"Oh my God, Luke!" Lorelai called back overdramatically. "Yes, Baby! Touch me there!"

"Knock it off," Luke said descending the stairs as Lorelai giggled. He turned his attention to Rory. "We're both dressed although I wouldn't swear to decent in your mother's case."

"I heard that!"

"Go on up, Rory. Maybe you can light as fire under her as to get her moving a little faster."

"Will do," Rory said as she headed upstairs.

Luke walked to the hall table where he'd dropped his keys in the early morning hours and put them in his pocket while Christopher stood there awkwardly not knowing if he should say anything. Luke made the decision for him.

"You might as well sit down and relax," He said. "Knowing those two we'll be waiting a while."

"You're probably right," Christopher agreed as he took a seat in the armchair by the stairs. "So, I was surprised to see you here this morning."

"I live here," Luke reminded him a little defensively.

"I know that, I just meant…well…Rory said you were out of town at some thing with your kid."

"I was, now I'm home. I got in early this morning and I don't plan taking another trip again until our honeymoon."

"I bet Lorelai's glad to have you home," Chris said uneasily.

"She certainly seems to with the welcome she gave me when I got into our bed," Luke said his voice dripping with innuendo. He was willing to tolerate Christopher being there for Rory's sake, but he wanted it known that Lorelai was off-limits.

Christopher shifted uncomfortably in his seat and changed the subject, "So, did Rory tell you about the incident with your nephew in Philadelphia?" he asked smugly thinking he might finally know something about his daughter that Luke didn't.

"Yeah, she did. She called me and asked for my advice since she and Jess are going to be spending some time together at our wedding and since he's going to be in town tomorrow."

"What's he coming here for?"

"Tux fitting for the wedding. He's my best man and he hasn't had a chance to make it to the bridal shop yet to get his measurements taken since he lives in Philly."

"Don't you think you're being a little insensitive to Rory having him in the wedding party given their history?"

"Not when I asked Rory's opinion about it and she said she was ok with it," Luke start getting irritated. He knew what Christopher was doing. He wasn't subtle about the fact the he was trying to compete with him for Rory's affections. "Look, can we not do this? Why don't we just say it like it is. You don't like me, I don't like you, but because of Rory we're going to have to be around each other once in a while so why don't we just agree to leave it like that. We tolerate each other when we have to and the rest of the time we can keep on hating each other. I'm not looking to be friends with you. I have enough friends."

"Wow, that's a little harsh."

"Just calling a spade a spade. Don't think I don't know that you're not just coming around for Rory. I know you still have feelings for Lorelai and you're sniffing around to see if there's any sign that there might be a chance for you to weasel your way back in. Let me tell you right now that that's _never _gonna happen. I plan on spending the rest of my life with her and I'm not going to stand aside and let you ruin that. I understand that you two have a kid together and you're going to have contact with her because of that, but it's _my _children she's carrying now and if you do anything that could upset her or stress her out while she's pregnant, putting my unborn children at risk, I will make damn sure you stay as far away from her as possible. You got that?"

"Yeah, I got it. You're not being exactly subtle about it."

"Good," Luke sad firmly just as Lorelai was coming down the stairs.

"Hey, Hon," she said to Luke. "I need your help. Can you fasten this for me?" She indicated the necklace in her hand. "I tried, but I kept getting it tangled in my hair which was not a pretty sight."

"No problem," he said as he took the necklace from her hand and slid it around her neck while she held her hair back. He couldn't resist taking a little extra time than he needed to with it since he knew Christopher was watching like a hawk. "This is the necklace I gave you when we first started dating," he commented as he finished fastening it, slid his arms around her waist from behind and lightly kissed her neck.

"And the matching earrings," she said as she turned in his arms and showed him her ears.

"You look beautiful," he said with a smile.

"You're kinda pretty yourself, Mister," she said as she kissed him.

"Mmmm, strawberry?" he questioned.

"Yep, you know I wouldn't be me without my fruity lip gloss."

"I like the fruity lip gloss," he said with a smile. "So, are you ready to go?"

"Yeah, I just need to grab my purse off the hall table on our way out the door," she answered as she made her way to do just that. "See ya' there, Christopher", she added as an afterthought as she and Luke walked out the door hand in hand.


	33. Chapter 33

The reception was in full swing now that the Koreans had left and Mrs. Kim had gone to bed with the promise to ignore anything that might be going on in the street all night. Lorelai and Christopher were sitting at a table with Sookie and Jackson while Rory and Luke had volunteered to get drinks after their dinner. Jackson and Sookie were talking about the race to find seats at the church and the mad rush of the Koreans to get to the food and get out while Lorelai was scolding Chris for his incessant texting. Rory and Luke returned to the table laden with drinks and began passing them around the table.

"What'd you get me?" Lorelai asked.

"Shirley Temple with extra cherries," Luke replied as he took his seat next to her while Rory sat on her other side between her and Christopher.

"See, this is just one of the many reasons I love you. You're always thinking about me, like when you made sure my Manhattans had extra cherries at the magazine party. And you were so good about not complaining about all the snotty people you had to hobnob with or the ride in the limo."

"Well, how could I complain about the limo? That was an incredible limo ride," he said with a mischievous grin.

"Yes, it was," Lorelai agreed, smiling back at him.

"Ok," Rory said. "I don't think I want to know what that means."

"I think you _know_ what it means," her mother replied with a giggle.

"Hey, I don't want to hear about you guys doing it in a limo."

"Well, just let me tell you, your future step-dad is a man of _many _talents…"

"Jeez," Luke said. "Here we go."

"…especially when he's…"

"Do _not _finish that sentence," Luke admonished his fiancée.

"Yes, please don't," Rory added.

"Come on," Sookie chimed in. "It sounds like she was just getting to the good stuff.

"Knock it off!" Christopher said impatiently then turned to Lorelai. "Can't you see you're embarrassing our daughter?"

"Relax, Dad," Rory said. "I'm fine. It's all just teasing. Besides we're all adults here. When did you become such an old lady?"

"I'm not. I'm just saying I don't think it's right for a mother to be flaunting her sex life in front of her kid." He couldn't get Luke's earlier words out of his head or the smug look on his face when he'd mentioned the welcome Lorelai had given him.

"First of all, I'm not flaunting anything," Lorelai defended herself. "Like Rory said, it's all just teasing. I never give her any intimate details of our sex life. And second of all, if you want to talk about embarrassing our daughter, look at your behavior lately with the non-stop texting."

"So, I'm not supposed to have contact with my own daughter?"

"No, I didn't say that. I think it's great that you've got this whole daddy-daughter thing going on. It's just maybe you need to tone it down a little."

"Rory, have I been texting you too much?" He asked his daughter.

"Well, it has been a little stalkerish," Rory replied. "But I love it that you want to keep in touch with me, it's just that I don't need to know every single detail of your trip to the grocery store."

"Well, then I apologize for my Sidekick stalking. I won't text you anymore," he said in a huff as he downed his drink in one swallow. "I need another drink." He got up and headed to the bar.

"I better go talk to him," Rory said and followed her father, feeling guilty for offending him when he was trying so hard. She found him in line at the bar in line behind Miss Patty. "Hey, I'm sorry, Dad. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. You can feel free to text me all you want."

"No, it's ok, Kiddo," He replied with a sigh. "I guess I was trying too hard. I feel like I have a lot to make up for."

"You don't have to do it all at once. I get that you're trying and that means a lot to me," she said sincerely. "So, this was some wedding, huh?" she said attempting to lighten the mood.

"I'll say," Patty interjected before Christopher could answer. "But the one I'm really looking forward to is your mom and Luke's." She gestured to their table where they were talking and laughing together. "Look at them and how happy they are. Theirs is the most anticipated wedding in Stars Hollow history. I mean, the whole town has known how in love they are for years. I can't wait to see them finally make it official."

"Yeah," Rory agreed. "It's great to see Mom so happy." Patty left to return to her seat.

"So," Christopher said awkwardly. "It seems like your mom and Luke have a lot of support." He stepped up to the bar and ordered a drink.

"They do. Everyone in town loves them. So, are you still planning on attending the wedding?"

"No. How can I when you made it very plain that you don't want me there?" He accepted his drink from the bartender and took a long drink from it.

"I just want Mom to have her perfect wedding day and I don't think it would be if you were there. I think it would be awkward and uncomfortable and I just want her to be happy."

"And Luke," he added.

"What's wrong with that? Like Miss Patty said, they're in love and have been for years. Why shouldn't they take the next step in their relationship?"

"You're right. If they're that happy, they should get married. Your grandmother must be thrilled. Lorelai got pregnant and this time she's marrying the guy who did it." He kept thinking back to Emily's visit to Boston and how she ordered him not to show up at the wedding and make trouble for Luke and Lorelai which was a complete about-face from her attitude last year.

"You do know that that's not why they're getting married? They were engaged long before there was a baby."

"Yeah, I know. Look, you go on back and hang with your mom. I'll be there soon."

"Are you ok?"

"Yeah, fine. Go on. I'll be there."

"You better, 'cause since you're my date, I was counting on a dance." She walked away to return to their table while her father chugged his drink and ordered another one, before following her.

"Hey, Kid, guess what?" Lorelai was saying as he sat back down.

"What?"

"I think I've almost got Luke talked into buying me one of those Sidekicks too."

"No! That'll be even worse!"

Lorelai started miming texting and said, "Hi Rory! What are you doing? What are you wearing? What are you thinking? What about now? Do you miss me? Do you think I'm pretty? Where do babies come from?"

"If you need the answer to that last question something's clearly wrong with this picture considering you're pregnant. Either that or you two aren't doing it right."

"I'd say we're doing it _very _right," Lorelai said as she glanced at Luke. "Wouldn't you, HO?"

"I have no complaints," He said, smiling back at her. It was then that the bride and groom walked up to their table.

"Hi!" Lane said

"Hi," Lorelai replied as did Luke.

"Hello, there," Sookie replied.

"Kudos on the hot dogs, by the way," Jackson added.

"Zach's idea," Lane said.

"Lane came up with the fries, though," Zach replied.

"You are so perfect together," Lorelai gushed then added beaming at Luke," Kinda like another couple I know."

"Are you having fun?" Sookie asked.

"Yes!" Lane said excitedly. "A little too much fun."

"We actually thought we should make the rounds before we get too toasted to remember who you are," Zach said then asked Christopher "Who are you?"

"Zach, this is my dad, Christopher," Rory answered for her father. "This is Zach."

"Congratulations, man," Christopher said. "Nice weddings!"

"Thank you," Zach said.

"Hey, I want to take a picture of everyone with Lane and Zach!" Rory said as she got out her Sidekick.

"Oh, God, I hate the paparazzi," Lorelai whined overdramatically.

"Come on and get in the picture! Say cheese!" They all squeezed in together and said "Cheese!" while Rory snapped the picture. "Thank you," She said when they separated.

"Okay! We should go," Lane said. "We have six more tables to hit. If we forget to say it later, we're really glad you came."

"Later!" Zach said.

"Hey, before you guys take off, I have something for you," Luke said reaching into his coat pocket and handing Lane an envelope.

"That's not necessary, Luke," Lane protested. "You guys already got us a gift.

"No, Lorelai got you a gift and signed my name to the card," Like corrected. "This is just from me."

Lane opened the envelope and looked at the check inside and said, "No, Luke, this is too much."

"Then consider it a bonus on your paycheck for all of your hard work. Use it to have some fun on your honeymoon."

"Thanks, Luke," she said, touched by her boss' generosity. She hugged him. "You're the greatest boss ever!"

"Yea, just don't spread it around or Caesar will get jealous."

"You got it."

"Thanks, Man," Zach said.

The newlyweds headed off to the next table while Luke sat back down and Chris held up his empty glass and said "I'm out." He made a beeline for the bar.

Rory looked at her mother in concern, "Do you think we should be worried that Dad's downing the cocktails like water?" she asked. "He's not the most stable person when he's been drinking.

"I don't know. You'd think he would've learned his lesson after the incident at your grandparents' vow renewal last year."

"But he's kind of a slow learner sometimes."

"I guess we'll just have to see what happens."

Their conversation was interrupted by Chris returning to his seat as Zach got everyone's attention on the microphone where the band had assembled on stage.

"What's up, Stars Hollow!" He began to much cheering and applauding. "Who likes my robe," he added which incited more cheering. "Thanks. I'm liking it myself. Okay. Tonight is not only the night I married the coolest girl on the planet, it is also the world premiere of the newly reunited Hep Alien." There was more cheering at this. "It feels great to be back!" He walked back to the drums to give Lane a kiss. She counts in and they begin playing _I'm A Believer. _Luke reached for Lorelai's hand and led her to the dance floor while Christopher watched silently seething.

Rory watched her mother and Luke for a moment, smiling ah Luke twirled her mother and started singing along with the song until she was distracted by a familiar face in the crowd who was looking a little lost. "Jess!" she called. He turned at the sound of her voice and walked to the table.

"Hey," he said, looking a little uncomfortable.

"What are you doing here?" she asked in surprise.

"I'm not trying to gate-crash or anything. I was just looking for Luke."

"I didn't mean here at the wedding, I think Lane and Zach are too blitzed to notice another person in this mob. I meant, what are you doing in Stars Hollow? You weren't supposed to be here until tomorrow."

"Well, I came in early. I thought it made more sense than driving four hours tomorrow, doing my fitting thing and then turning right back around to drive four more hours to get back to Philly."

"Makes sense. So, where are you stating?"

"That's why I was looking for Luke. I figured I could crash at the old apartment, but the key's not where it used to be, hence the looking for Luke."

"Ahhh," she said nodding in understanding. "He's on the dance floor with my Mom." She gestured to the direction of the dance floor.

"No kidding?" He said looking surprised as he turned to the dance floor. "Now, this I've got to see."

They watched until the song ended and Luke and Lorelai exited the dance floor holding hands and laughing.

"Boy, Zach sure loves his robe," Lorelai was saying. "Hey, I just had a thought!"

"That's scary," Luke quipped earning a swat on the ass from his fiancée as they returned to their seats. "Ok, so what's your thought?"

"We should do one of those themed wedding things and get you something kitschy to wear like that."

"No!"

"Come on, Luke! It'll be fun!"

"I'll repeat, there's no way in hell you're getting me to dress up in something like that"

"Just think how cute you'd look, Uncle Luke, "Jess teased him.

"Can it, Smartass! What are you doing here anyway?"

"Jeez, feeling the love here." Luke glared at him. "I came in a day early. I thought I might spend some time hanging with my mom while I'm in town, but I need a place to crash and I don't really want to crash at her place."

"Got it," Luke said as he reached into his pocket for his keys to the diner and the apartment and handed them to his nephew who starts to walk away before Rory stopped him.

"Hey, you don't have to go just yet. You're more than welcome to join us."

"I don't want to intrude. Lane never really liked me all that well."

"Did I mention she's too drunk to care?"

"Yeah, sure," He said as he pulled up a chair from another table and sat next to his uncle.

"Now, Luke," Sookie said back to the whole kitschy outfit thing. There might be something to it. I mean, Jackson wore a skirt at our wedding."

"That was not a skirt," Jackson protested. "That was a very manly Scottish kilt!"

"Still not doing it," Luke said. "The tux is enough."

"I don't know, Luke. Look how much Zach up there loves his robe and TJ loved his tights that he wore when he married my mom."

"Yeah, well, TJ's an idiot," Luke grumbled.

Just think about it, Baby," Lorelai said. Maybe we could do one of those Spanish-themed weddings where I could wear one of those frilly dresses with all the ruffles and you could wear a bullfighter outfit with the cute little hat."

"No, our wedding plans area already made, and your dress and my tux are already paid for."

While they were talking, Brian got up on stage and began to make his speech, "Hi, I'm Brian Fuller, bass player for Hep Alien." People started throwing stuff at him. "All right, I want to say a few words about Zach. I've known Zach for most of my life. I've been his roommate and friend and I just have to say I think Lane has something very, very wrong with her." Everyone laughed at that.

While Brian continued, Sookie said to Luke, "You know, Luke, maybe Lorelai's right. I mean, with your butt, you'd look pretty good in those tight bullfighter's pants."

"Hey!" Jackson said. "What are you doing, looking at Luke's butt?"

"I'm married, not dead," she said with a giggle.

"So in closing, Lane," Brian said, finishing his toast. If you ever want to see a picture of Zach trying to shove fourteen ping-pong balls in his mouth, I have it! To Lane and Zach! May they stay together forever! Otherwise Hep Alien is screwed."

"I'm up next," Rory said making her way toward the stage as the crowd cheered Brian's speech.

"Great toast, Bri!" Lane called.

"Yes, excellent. Seriously, dude, I need those pictures back," Zach added.

"Hi, everyone! I'm Rory Gilmore, I'm the maid of honor," Rory said as the crowd cheered again. "I'm not one for speeches, and I don't have any incriminating picture of Lane to share, but I do have this letter." She held up an envelope as everyone hooted. "This letter was written in 1995 by one Lane Kim. It was slipped into my hand during a spelling test in Miss Mallen's class. I was so shocked by its contents that I missed the word 'automobile'. O-T-T-O-mobile. That's right, Lane. I remember. I will now share with you the contents of this letter." She opened the envelope. ""Dear Rory. How was your lunch? Mine was bad. Did you have ham again? If you did, I am sorry, but mine was worse. I thought you should know that today at recess, I decided that I am going to marry Alex Bacchus. He has a very nice head and his ears don't stick out like Roddy Winston's do. I will love him forever, no matter what. See you at Brownies. Love, Lane.' I'm sorry, Lane, I just thought that Zach should know that in your heart he will always be second place to Alex Bacchus and his well-proportioned ears."

"It's true," Lane said to Zach.

"Now, there are a couple of other people who want to say some stuff to you, so I'm now going to turn the stage over to Stars Hollow's power couple, my mother and future step-father, Lorelai Gilmore and Luke Danes!" She returned to her seat while Luke and Lorelai took over the stage.

"Boy, I tell you, if you have to get married, this is the way to do it," Christopher said bitterly.

"_Have_ to get married? Oh my, so cynical and jaded," Rory replied, a little worried about her dad.

"Well, we can't all be cool like Zach."

"I think they're really happy," she said looking at Lane and Zach and then up at her mother and Luke.

"So, wow, are we really Stars Hollow's power couple?" Lorelai asked while the crowd whooped. "Cool!" she said with a delighted smile. "Well, I have known Lane a very long time. She's been best friends with my daughter, Rory, since they were in kindergarten. I've watched her grow up into the beautiful young woman she is today. I was there when she first met Zach when they were still pounding away in my garage and I watched as she made a new best friend, never knowing that it would one day come to this. Lane, I know from personal experience what an amazing thing it is when you fall in love with your best friend." She cast a meaningful glance at Luke who smiled back at her. "So I wish you and Zach many years of happiness and may you never lose your friendship!"

"Thank you, Lorelai," Lane said, her eyes misting with happy tears.

"Your turn, Luke," Lorelai whispered to him, handing him the mike.

"Um, ok," he began. "You know that I'm not as good at the talking thing as my very chatty fiancée here, but I do have a couple of things I want to add. I, much like Lorelai have, watched Lane grow up. You all know that she's worked for me in my diner for a while now and it kills me that I have to live without her while she goes on her honeymoon with just Caesar for help. You guys know what I mean if you know Caesar." The crowd laughed at this. "But I've realized that I'm not really losing a waitress as much as I am gaining a mooch. Yes, Zach, I know all about the free fries over the last couple of years," he added with a grin.

"Busted!" Zach said to Lane who smiled back at him.

"Here's the thing, though, Zach, Lane loves you and as long as you keep her smiling like she is right now, you're welcome to all the free fries you want. Congrats, Guys."

"I have just one more thing to add," Lorelai said, taking the mike back from Luke. "If you think this is a great party, just wait until you see the one we're gonna' have five weeks from today in this very square when I finally get to say 'I do' to my best friend." The crowd roared as Luke and Lorelai descended the stage.

Christopher jumped out of his seat, staggered over to the stage and grabbed the microphone Lorelai had left behind. "I have a few words I want to add," he said, his voice slurred from the massive amounts of alcohol, he'd consumed throughout the night.

"Uh-oh," Lorelai said worriedly.

"Now, I don't know the bride and groom all that well, but I want to wish them luck 'cause Lane's my kid's best friend and 'cause marriage is tough. I should know. I was married once. But it didn't work out cause I only married her 'cause I knocked her up, just like I did to Lorelai when we were sixteen, only she wouldn't marry me. I can't say I blame her. I mean, look at me. I'm a loser who hasn't been there for my kid and who's not allowed to go to _my _best friend's wedding. Thanks for the invite, Lor," he said as he raised his glass to her, "But I'm thinking I won't be there. I've been told by both my daughter and your mother that I'm not really welcome, so I won't be dancing at your wedding or get to kiss the bride or any of that stuff."

Lorelai looked at Rory for confirmation, who nodded sheepishly.

"Somebody needs to get him down from there," Sookie said.

"It's not gonna be me," Luke said. "As drunk as he is and as much as he hates me, he's likely to fight back."

"I got it," Jess said.

"Right behind you," Jackson added as they headed to the stage.

"You were right about something, Lor," A drunken Christopher continued. "It _is _an amazing thing when you fall in love with your best friend. The only bad part of it is when she's falls in love with someone else." Jess and Jackson stepped up on stage and tried to take the microphone away from him. He shrugged them off and added, "Why couldn't it be me, Lor? Why, him, of all people? Knowing you're pregnant with his kid and that he's had his greasy hands all over you makes me sick!"

"That's enough!" Jess said as he managed to finally wrestle the mike from his hands and he and Jackson dragged him off the stage.

"You get your hands off me!" Chris snapped as he tried to fight them off. "And keep your punk-ass hands off my daughter too!" He managed to free one arm from Jackson's grip and took a swing at Jess, who ducked as Luke was there in a flash to help them.

"Back the hell off of my nephew! You wanna a swing at someone? Swing at me. I'm the one you're pissed at!" Lorelai, Sookie, and Rory came running over just as Jackson was regaining his grip on Christopher.

"Dad, stop it!" Rory cried. "You're drunk and acting like an idiot!"

"That's the point, isn't it? Everybody's telling me I'm an idiot! I can't compare to you perfect Podunk diner guy!" He wrenched his arm from Jess' grasp, took a drunken swing at Luke and missed by a mile. Jackson put a stop to it by punching Chris squarely in the face, knocking him out.

"Jackson!" Sookie yelled at her husband.

"Well, somebody had to do it! It was the only way to shut him up!"

"Come on," Luke said shaking his head. "Let's get him scooped up. He can sleep it off in the apartment. My old bed's still up there."

Lane and Zach grinned at each other as they watched Luke, Jess and Jackson pick Chris up off the ground and haul him over toward the diner. "Totally perfect wedding," Zach said to Lane who nodded happily and kissed him.


	34. Chapter 34

Jess, Jackson and Luke managed to drag Christopher's unconscious form up the stairs and into the apartment, unceremoniously dumping him on the bed. The irony of the drunken Christopher spending the night in the bed in which he and Lorelai had first made love was not lost on Luke. He smiled slightly as he wondered was the intoxicated man's reaction would be when he woke up and realized where he was.

"What are you grinning about?" Jess asked him.

"Nothing," Luke said shaking off the negative thoughts. He really was trying to be better about his behavior around Chris, but he couldn't help the way he felt.

"Listen, guys," Jackson said. "I'm gonna head back out there. I have a feeling I'm I the dog house with Sookie over punching Christopher."

"Well, whatever she says," Jess said. "It was a beautiful punch all the same. I was seriously thinking of doing it myself, only I didn't think that would go over too well with Rory if I decked her dad."

"Probably not," Jackson agreed and left the room to return to his angry wife.

"We should probably get back down there too," Jess said and started toward the door.

"Not so fast," Luke said grabbing his nephew's arm to stop him. "We need to have a talk."

"About what?"

"About Rory. Christopher may have said a lot of out of line things tonight, but he's not wrong about you keeping your distance from Rory. She told me what happened in Philly after I left and you need to leave her alone."

"Jeez, what is it with you? You've always cared more about Rory than about me and I'm your own flesh and blood. She's just the daughter of the woman you're screwing!"

"Hey! She's more to me than that and you know it! And for the record, I don't care about her more than I do you, but she is in a very unstable place emotionally right now and the last thing she needs is you coming back into her life and jerking her around again!"

"I'm not trying to jerk her around! Do you think I planned on kissing her? It just happened and just so you know, she kissed me back."

"She told me that too. But she also told me that it confused her. She's still grieving over this break-up with Logan and she needs time to heal!"

"Did she ask you to say all this stuff? 'Cause if she needs time, all she has to do is say something to me herself."

"No, she didn't ask me to say anything. I'm saying something because it needs to be said. I love that girl as if she were my own daughter and I'm not gonna' let you break her heart again, especially when she's still trying to figure out how to get over her most recent heartbreak."

"I don't want that either, but I can't stand this! You're not the only one who loves her, you know!"

"Don't you think I know that? But if you _truly _love Rory, you'll give her the time and space she needs to figure things out. It's not going to do either of you any good if she jumps into a new relationship with you before she's ready. You'd both end up with your hearts broken again and I don't want either of you to be broken-hearted. If you and Rory are meant to be, you will be, but when you're both ready."

"Like you and Lorelai?" he said quietly. "I noticed things seemed to be going pretty well between you two now."

"Yeah, only I hope it doesn't take you until you're almost forty to get it together like it did me."

"That's right. You are getting to be an old man, aren't you?" he teased.

"But at least I'm getting it together finally and I have you to thank for giving me the kick in the ass I needed to see where my priorities should be."

"What else is family for? So, five weeks until you get shackled, huh? You getting nervous?"

Luke shook his head and said," Not a bit. Everything feels completely right. Me, Lorelai, Rory, April, the twins, the house-"

"Wait," Jess interrupted. "Back up a step. Did you say twins?"

"Oh, that's right. I didn't tell you yet. Lorelai's carrying twins."

"Man, when you knock up your fiancée, you don't do it halfway, do you?" He grinned at his uncle.

Luke chuckled. "I guess not."

"But you're happy? I mean, you seem happy."

"I am, Kid. A little freaked by all the changes, but happy."

"Well, let's not keep your fiancée waiting. I've been told it's unwise to piss off a pregnant woman."

"So I hear," he replied. "Do me a favor, though, and at least think about what I said about Rory. If it's right, it'll happen. Just think about those goofball books."

"None of the books could prepare me for the fact that she's still in love with the jerk that cheated on her," Jess said looking away from his uncle. It was then that he noticed the light on the answering machine. "Did you know you've got messages?" He nodded toward the machine.

"No. I haven't been here in two weeks. I wonder who'd be calling me here. Everyone who has this number knows to call me at the house now or the diner. I'm hardly ever up here anymore unless I need something for the diner."

Luke walked to the machine and pressed the play button and a disembodied voice said awkwardly, "Um…hi, Luke…um….It's Nicole…" Luke deleted the message and waited for the next one, "Luke, Nicole again. I've been trying to…" he deleted this one also, "Luke, it's Nicole…" he deleted the next one and this continued until the machine was done. There were twenty-two messages in all, every one of them from his ex-wife.

Luke glared at the machine in frustration, "Why the hell is she calling me out of the blue?"

"Well, you might've found out if you'd listened to the whole messages, or at least one of them," Jess pointed out.

"What's the point? She and I were done a long time ago. I have no interest in whatever she's got to say." That wasn't entirely true. He was burning with curiosity, not that he had any desire to talk to her again, but he couldn't figure out why she'd be calling him again after two years. He shook his head. "Come on, let's get back down there. There's still a wedding going on."

"Ok," Jess said skeptically as he followed his uncle down the stairs and out the front door of the diner to find Lorelai and Rory crossing the street toward them.

"Hey, I was wondering what was taking so long," Lorelai said. "You still owe me a slow dance, Mister."

"How remiss of me," Luke said.

"Hey, Luke," Rory said. "I'm sorry about my dad and the way he behaved tonight. If I'd known he was gonna' be like that I'd never have invited him. It's just he's been so good lately, I never imagined he's pull a stunt like this."

"It's not your fault, Rory. You can't control how your dad acts. He's a grown-up and he chose to drink way too much tonight and make a complete ass of himself."

"Yeah, but you're the one he always hurts when he gets like that." As much as she was trying to give her dad a chance, she still hadn't forgotten that it was partially his drunken behavior at her grandparents' vow renewal that had hurt Luke and her mother before. She would never forget her mother lying in bed crying over Luke. She never wanted to see her mother broken like that again.

"I'm fine, Rory. Really. He was a jerk, but he didn't hurt me in any way. Although, with everything he drank tonight, I imagine he'll be hurting in the morning, like you were this morning."

Rory laughed and said, "That's true. By the way, did I ever thank you for the hangover pancakes you made me?"

"Yeah, you did." He said with a smile and took Lorelai's hand. "Now, come on, Crazy Lady," he said to her. "I owe you a dance." They walked across the street together toward the ongoing party, leaving Rory and Jess alone in an awkward silence.

"So…" Rory began, "Um…I just want to say thank you for helping out tonight. I know my dad can be a jerk, but…"

"It's no problem," Jess said. "To tell you the truth, though, he reminded me a little of that jerk you were dating when he got drunk."

"I know," Rory said sadly.

"I mean, what is it with these rich assholes who just think they can say and do whatever they want with no consequences?" When he saw the pained look on her face, he said, "Jeez, I'm sorry. I know you're still trying to deal with your break-up drama."

"No, you're right. Logan's a jerk, my dad's a jerk. You know, when he took a swing at you tonight, I really thought Luke was gonna' let him have it. It's been building for a while now. I was just so happy that my dad was finally making an effort to get to know me that I tried to ignore it."

"Come on, Rory, you know that no matter how much of a jackass your father was being. Luke would never take a swing at him out of respect for you. Neither would I, for that matter."

"I guess it's a good thing Jackson did it for both of you, huh?"

"Not so good for Jackson right now," He said gesturing across the street to where Jackson and Sookie were arguing.

"Yeah, Sookie looked a little upset over the whole thing."

"So, you wanna head back over there? It is your best friend's wedding after all."

"Let's go," she said taking his hand in hers as they walked across the square together. He looked at her briefly, wondering what she was thinking about holding his hand, but kept his mouth shut thinking about what his uncle had said to him, not wanting to push her into something she wasn't ready for. All too soon for him, the walk was over and she released his hand as they returned to their places at the table. "I'm glad you're here, Jess, she said after a moment of silence." It's nice to have another friend around."

"So, I'm your…friend?"

"You were always my friend, Jess. Even before we dated and you…" she trailed off, not wanting to finish the sentence.

"…Broke you heart?" he finished for her. She simply nodded. "Look, I know I was a big jerk back then and I kept things from you, like what was going on at school. I should have shared that stuff with you, but I didn't know how to. I was always so used to handling things on my own because of the way my mom was. But I swear to you, that I'm a different person now. I'm not that guy anymore."

"I know you're different now. The thing is, I'm different too. I've been through a lot in my life since then and that's changed the way I look at things. I see how happy Mom and Luke are and that's something that I want to have too, someday." She glanced over at the dance floor where Luke was holding her mom close as they swayed to the music together, stealing little kisses here and there.

Jess followed her gaze and chuckled. "Who knew Luke could dance?"

"I've discovered since he's been with my mom that he's a man of many talents."

"Ah, so you want my uncle. That's a little disturbing," he joked, earning him a well-placed smack on the arm. He only laughed.

"No! Ewww! I don't want Luke! That would be like dating my father. I meant that I someday want a relationship like theirs. They've been through so much crap and both made some big boneheaded mistakes in their time together, but yet here they are, still together, working out their differences and happily in love."

Jess looked back to the dance floor at his uncle who was grinning like a fool with Lorelai in his arms, shook his head and said, "Yeah, It's a little revolting."

Rory laughed and replied, '"I agree, but I'm glad they're both happy. I want to be that happy in a relationship someday, but for now I…" she broke off again.

"…You need a little time to grieve. I get that." They both fell silent again, neither quite sure what to say.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

On the dance floor, Luke and Lorelai were happily entwined in each other's arms, "So, are you having a good time?" Luke asked his fiancée.

"The best," she answered smiling up at him. "I was so proud of you tonight."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah, it showed a lot of restraint that you didn't hit Christopher when he went after Jess the way he did and then took a swing at you."

"I have to admit, I seriously thought about just decking the son of a bitch, but I couldn't, not in front of Rory. He's still her father, no matter how big of an ass he was tonight."

"So proud of you," she said leaning her head on his shoulder wrapping her arms around his neck. He pulled her closer as she began to lightly nuzzle his neck.

Luke sighed contentedly enjoying the sensation of her warm lips on his skin. He savored this feeling for a moment before whispering her ear, "If you keep this up, we're gonna have to take this somewhere else before it gets indecent."

She ceased what she was doing and gazed up at him, desire burning in her eyes, then teased in mock horror, "Why, Mr. Danes, I'm shocked! Are you saying that you would ravage me right here in the town square?" She lowered one hand to his butt and gave it a little squeeze, pressing into him to indicate that she was no longer in the mood for just dancing.

"I only have so much self-control, so don't tempt me," he growled into her ear lowering his lips to her neck to torment her the same way she'd been tormenting him.

"Then I suggest you take me home," she whispered.

"You sure you're ready to leave?"

"Just let me go say good-bye to Lane and Zach."

"Ok," he said as she left to do that and he made his way back to their table to gather up their things. He picked up Lorelai's sweater and the suit jacket he'd discarded earlier when he'd thought there might be a fight and reached under the table for Lorelai's purse.

"You know that purse doesn't really go with your outfit," Jess quipped, inducing a giggle from Rory.

"Stuff it!" Luke said to his smartass nephew.

"You guys taking off?" Rory asked.

"Yeah, your mom's kinda tired," he said. "So, I'm gonna take her home."

"Tired, right," she said, knowing better, having seen their behavior on the dance floor and the smoldering looks they were giving each other. "Hey, listen. Since I'm the maid of honor and all, I pretty much have to stay until this whole things winds down, so it may be two, three in the morning before I get home, leaving you and Mom in the house alone. So, anything you wanna do, that I _so _don't wanna know about, you go right ahead and do." She grinned at him, while he blushed.

"Oh, and hey Uncle Luke, remember no glove, no love, Oh, wait it's too late for the safe sex lecture, isn't it?" Jess said with a smirk earning him a playful slap on the back of the head from his uncle.

"Knock it off, and you remember what I said," he reminded him of their earlier conversation as Lorelai walked up to him.

"You ready to go, Babe?" she asked.

"Yeah, let's go home," he said as he draped her sweater across her shoulders, handed her her purse and slipped his hand into her free one and they began walking home.

They were barely inside the front door of the crap shack when Lorelai started impatiently tugging at his tie to loosen it, and then began working on the buttons of his dress shirt. Before he knew what was happening, she had dropped the shirt and tie to the floor and was yanking his t-shirt out of his pants and trying to pull it over his head. He raised his arms to help her out and she started planting kisses all over his bare chest. He groaned at the warmth of her mouth on him and flipped her around so that she was pinned against the front door. She gasped as he slid the sweater off or her and assaulted her neck and shoulders with his lips and teeth. She grasped his butt as he ground his arousal against her."Let's go upstairs, "he said in a husky whisper.

"No, I need you now," she said desperately. "Right here, right now."

"No, "he said firmly. "I wanna make love to you in our bed." When she protested, he lifted her into his arms, carried her upstairs, and laid her on the bed while he removed his shoes along with the rest of his clothing.

She kicked her own shoes off onto the floor, "Luke," she pleaded as she reached for him.

"Patience is a virtue," he said in a lightly mocking tone.

"When have you ever known me to be very virtuous?' she joked, sitting up and Trying to pull her dress off,

"Let me," he said as he lifted her dress over her head, stripping her of her bra and panties as well. He sat there for a moment just looking at her before placing a tender kiss on her lips, not daring to touch her yet, knowing he had very little control left.

"Luke, touch me," she begged. "I need to feel you hands on me."

"My _greasy _hands, you mean?" he said. "Are you sure? I wouldn't want to make you sick." He was having trouble getting Christopher's drunken words out of his head. As much as he'd tried to convince himself that it hadn't hurt, the harsh words coming out of his mouth had just brought all his deep-seated insecurities racing to the forefront of his mind.

"Luke, don't," she said quietly. "Don't let what Christopher said get to you. I love it when you touch me." She look into his eyes and saw the uncertainly in them. She reached for his hand and placed it over her heart. "Do you feel that? How my heart's racing? That's for you. My heart belongs to you." She lifted his other hand and settled on hand on each of her breasts and said, "These are your too, although you'll have to learn to share them with the kids." She then lowered one of his hands to her still flat stomach where their unborn children were nestled and added," and these are yours." During all of this, she never took her eyes off his, watching them fill with the tears he'd been holding back that she knew he was too proud to let fall. She'd known there had been something he was holding back from her, but she'd let it go knowing that he'd talk about it when he was ready. "Do you understand me, Luke? Everything I have is yours."

"Mine," he choked out, overcome with emotion.

"Yes, yours," she said cupping his face in her hands as she kissed him.

"Mine," he repeated as he finally wrapped his arms around her and lowered her to the bed, carefully stretching himself out on top of her, not wanting to hurt her. They made love slowly and tenderly with her repeating "I'm yours," over and over again while he kept chanting the word "mine" in response until they were both spent. He collapsed on top of her burying his face in her neck as he finally let the tears fall. She wrapped her arms around his back and tightened her legs around his hips and just held him while he got it all out.

"Just let it out, Baby," she said soothingly as she raised one hand to stroke his hair.

When he finally raised his head and looked at her, his face streaked with tears, he said quietly, "I'm sorry." He started to move away from her but she gripped him tighter.

"Not yet," she said.

"I must be crushing you."

"No," she replied. "I'm fine."

"But the babies…"

"…Are fine too. I don't wanna let you go yet. I just want to feel your weight on me right now and keep holding you inside me. Now, tell me why you're saying you're sorry when you have nothing to be sorry for."

"But I do. I keep thinking about what an asshole I've been to you the last few months and how easily I could have thrown it all away and it tears me up inside, knowing that I could've missed out on this and lost you forever."

"Shhh, "she said as she pulled him to her and cradled his head in her arms. "You're not gonna lose me. I love you.'

He lifted his head and looked her in the eye, "But I could have. I was hurting you so much and I was too stupid to notice. I don't know how you can forgive me for that." He pulled himself out of her grasp and turned toward the door, facing away from her.

She spooned up behind him, slid her arm around him and kissed his back, "Luke, turn around and look at me. I think we should talk about this." He simply grunted in response. "Luke, Baby, please don't do this to me. Don't shut me out again. You say you're sorry that you hurt me and I believe you, but you turning away from me and not telling me what's going on in your head hurts me too."

He turned back to face her and said, "How can you even stand to look at me when I failed you?"

"You haven't failed me. Where is this coming from? Is it the stuff Christopher said? Because he was drunk and didn't know what he was saying."

"That's only a part of it."

"Well, then tell me all of it. We promised not to keep things from each other."

"I know we did and that's just one of the many ways I failed you. I didn't tell you about April right away and when I did I kept her from knowing you."

"Sweetie, we already talked about this and I forgive you for that. You're making an effort now and April and I have gotten to know each other better."

"But while I was off in my own little world, I know Christopher was coming around more and more. You babysat his kid and I didn't even let you meet mine and you have a history with him and I'm trying so hard to accept that he's a part of your life, but I hate it. I hate that he's still got a hold on you."

"He doesn't. I told you I only want you. I only love you."

"I know that, Lorelai, but he was your first and that's something that I just can't compete with, and he's Rory's father, so that means the two of you will always be connected. Not to mention that I've seen your pattern. He's your fallback guy. The one you run to whenever whatever relationship you're in is falling apart. And let's face it, I was letting us fall apart."

"So, you think I would've run to Christopher?"

"I don't know. Maybe, if I'd kept pushing you away like I was. For once, he was around more than I was and he was letting you hang with his kid when I wasn't and did I mention I was a jerk to you."

"Yeah, but I was a jerk to you keeping you out of all that stuff with Rory."

"But I was a jerk to you about setting a wedding date before you were ready."

"I was a jerk for not setting a wedding date then."

"Then I was a jerk when we had that fight about Christopher. I practically accused you of cheating."

"Well, I was a real jerk about your grandmother's bedroom furniture."

"I was a bigger jerk for keeping you from knowing my daughter."

"Are we really gonna do this?"

"Do what?"

"Argue over who's been the bigger jerk in our relationship?"

Luke chuckled a little, "I guess it's kinds pointless, huh? We've both made mistakes."

"Yes, we have, but the important thing is that we're working on correcting those mistakes and not making the same mistakes in the future. Now, while we're talking about mistakes, you said Christopher was only part of what was making you feel like this. What's the other part?"

He hesitated, not sure how to tell her about his ex-wife's calls. "Well," he paused. "It's…uh…Nicole."

"Nicole? What about her? Is this still about the fact that you've been married before? You should know by now that I don't care about that."

"No, that's not it. It's…she's been calling."

"Calling? You've been talking to her again?" He felt a wave of jealousy strike in the pit of her stomach.

"No, I haven't been. I didn't even know she'd been calling until we dumped Christopher in bed tonight. There were more than twenty messages on the machine at the apartment. I don't even know for sure when she started calling because I haven't been checking the machine since I moved in here with you. I mean, I didn't think I needed to, everyone who knows that number knows to call me here now."

"Except Nicole apparently. Did she say what she wanted."

"She might have. I didn't listen to all of the messages. I just started deleting them as soon as I heard her voice."

"You didn't call her back?"

"No, why should I? I've moved on, she's moved on. In fact, she moved on before I did if you recall."

"Yeah, I remember bailing you out of jail that night."

"Did I ever tell you she married the sock guy?"

"No. She did?"

"Yeah, about three months after the divorce was final. I saw the announcement in the paper when I got back from Maine."

"Why didn't you ever tell me?"

"I don't know. It didn't seem important to me. It's not like I was pining over her and I was just beginning to start something with you. I didn't want to screw that up by talking about my ex-wife."

"I get it."

"Anyway, her calling combined with Christopher's drunken speech just really got me thinking about how badly I messed things up with you. After I found out about April, I started doing all the same stupid shit I did that drove Nicole away. You and I remodeled this whole house so we could live in it together and I never moved in, and I stopped sharing stuff with you, and I kept you out of certain parts of my life and it just really hit me tonight that I would've deserved it if you'd left me. If you'd run to Christopher for comfort and cheated on me the way Nicole did, the way Anna did…" his voice trailed off.

"God, I never even thought about the fact that you've been cheated on twice. No wonder you're so insecure around Christopher. Something you need to keep in mind, though, is that I'm not Anna or Nicole, and I just put a great deal of work into trying to show you that I'm yours forever." She scooted closer to him and laid her head on his chest, laying her arm across his stomach.

He reached up to cup her face and ran his fingers through her hair, noticing it was damp from his tears. "I got you wet," he said.

"Dirty!"

"I meant you hair with my idiotic crying."

"Hey, there's nothing idiotic about crying. It's something we all need to do from time to time. I like that you're not afraid to cry in front of me. It shows that you trust me enough to show me your vulnerable side, something that nobody else sees in you. It's actually quite the turn on."

"Yeah, I'm sure the big blubbering baby man is _very _sexy."

"It is to me," she said as she kissed him softly.

"I love you. I know I don't say it enough, but I just wanted you to know that. I think that's a big part of where the tears came from. I'm so happy with you and about the babies and I'm terrified that'll I'll do something to screw it all up and lose you and never get to see my kids, like I never got to be with April."

"That's not gonna happen. Sure, you're gonna screw up. I'm gonna screw up, but what matters is how we deal with it and that we work through our screw=ups together. Even if, God forbid, something happened that would cause us to split up, I would _never _keep your children from you. You're an amazing father already and our children are incredibly lucky to have you as a dad. I was even thinking that if we figure out that we can handle the twins, maybe down the road, we'd try to have another baby after these two. "

"Really? You've thought about us that far ahead?"

"Yeah, Hell, I've thought about us sitting on the front porch when we're old and gray, covered in grandchildren."

"That sounds nice," he said hoping that they'd be together that long. They both wanted it, they'd just have to work at it.

"And I was also thinking, what better time than the present to start practicing for making a new baby," she said with a mischievous grin as she shifted so that she was lying with her breasts pressed against his bare chest and kissed him again.

"You're gonna be the death of me," He said when she pulled back a little.

"But at least you'll die with a smile on your face."

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

As Jess and Rory stepped up onto the front porch of the crap shack, she said to him, "Thanks for walking me home."

"No problem," he replied. "There's a lot of crazy drunk people running around Stars Hollow right now. I wanted to make sure you got home safely."

She laughed and then asked, "Do you want to come in for a cup of coffee or something?"

"Nah, I should probably get headed back over to the apartment and get some sleep if I'm gonna make it to the bridal shop in the morning and go see my mom and still have time to make it back to Philly by tomorrow night." He was lying. He did want to come in, but not for coffee. He wanted to continue what they'd started when she came to visit him, but he was haunted by his uncle's words, knowing that he was right. It wouldn't work if Rory jumped into a new relationship before she was ready. That''s what his head told him, he just wished somebody could explain ti to his heart.

"Ok," she said a little disappointed. She'd enjoyed spending time with him tonight once they'd gotten over the initial awkwardness after their moment of weakness in Philadelphia. They'd laughed and talked like they used to when they were seventeen. "I'm really glad you came tonight. I had a great time."

"Yeah, me too," he replied.

"Well, goodnight," she said and started to turn to the door to let herself in when she hesitated turned back to Jess and kissed him lightly on the cheek. She knew he wanted more, but that was all she could give for now. "Thanks again for walking me home."

He smiled and watched for a moment as she let herself into the house and waited until she was safely inside before turning away and heading back to his old home.

Once inside, Rory leaned her back against the door for support, not quite able to believe what she'd just done. She didn't want to give Jess false hope, but she also wanted to thank him for everything. She sighed and thought that since he hadn't pushed for more, maybe he was starting to get it. She started to make her way to her room when she noticed the discarded clothing in the entry way. She smiled knowing that he mom was so happy and went to bed dreaming of having that kind of happiness herself someday.


	35. Chapter 35

"Can we stay like this forever?" Lorelai asked dreamily having just woken up as she and Luke lay entangled in each other's arms early the next morning.

He lazily ran his fingers through her hair and replied, "As nice as that sounds, it's not very practical."

"Practical, shmactical. These two weeks apart have made me realize that I don't ever want to spend a night without you again."

"You never have to. I'm not going anywhere again unless it's with you." He sighed and absently stroked her bare back.

"Something on your mind?"

"Yeah, I was just thinking if I'd kept on being stubborn and not let you talk me into that trip to Martha's Vineyard, we wouldn't be where we are now."

"I don't know about that. Jess still might have told you you were being an idiot."

"I meant the twins. We wouldn't be starting a family now, if it weren't for that trip."

"We might be. When you came here that night after you moved your stuff in, you were determined that we were going to talk about our family plans. Maybe we would've made a baby that night if I hadn't already been pregnant."

"Maybe, I don't know. There are so many little things that have happened in our lives that could have changed everything between us and not led us to where we are."

"Are you gonna' start getting all philosophical on me now? Like the tree in the forest bit?"

"Huh?"

"You know that old that if a tree falls and no one's around to hear it, does it make a noise?"

"Ahhh," he said in understanding. "I'm just thinking how fragile everything is. How easily everything could fall apart again if we were to fall into that old pattern of not really saying what's on our minds."

"It's only going to fall apart if we let it and fall back on old habits. I think we've made some real progress and I for one am not going to let us fall apart again without a fight." She slid her arms around his back and pulled him closer to her and kissed him.

"Ow," he said.

"What? Did I shock you or something?"

"No. But you definitely marked your territory last night."

"What? Let me see." Luke turned over showing her his back. She noticed then that she had indeed marked him up. There were several indentations marring his back between his shoulder blades where she'd clung to him in the throes of passion, not realizing she was hurting him. "I'm sorry, Babe. I didn't mean to hurt you."

"It doesn't hurt, really, not unless you touch it. It's fine. I don't mind at all. It lets me know I'm doing something right," He said with a smug grin, happy that he was able to satisfy her in bed.

"Well, when you look at it that way, then it's kinda your own fault for making me squeal like you do." She grinned back at him and kissed him lightly on the lips, she then shifted the nuzzling his neck, careful not to touch the part of his back where she'd cut into him with her fingernails. "You wanna see if you can make me squeal again," she said suggestively.

"I need to get to work soon," he protested, not wanting to leave their bed but knowing that he'd have to check on his business at some point since he'd been away for two weeks and Lane was now on her honeymoon.

"You're the boss. You can be a little late," she said as she let her hand travel down to his butt and gave it a firm squeeze.

"You remember that next time I want you to play hooky from the inn to spend a little more time in bed with me," he said in a low husky voice as he flipped her over so that she was pinned beneath him again and kissed her hungrily. All of his doubts from the previous night were gone with her promise that she was with him forever. She responded to his kisses with enthusiasm, as she ran her fingers through his hair. She sighed contentedly as he lowered his lips to her throat just as they were interrupted by the bedroom door opening. "Oh, jeez!" Luke yelped in surprise as he saw Rory standing in the doorway, hastily moving away from her mother, and desperately trying to make sure that they were both covered by the blankets.

"Oh, God, I'm sorry," Rory stammered as she backed out the door.

"Just give us a second, Hon!" Lorelai called through the door as she reached for her favorite flannel that she kept hanging from the bedpost and slipped it on while Luke got out of bed, walked to his dresser and pulled out a clean pair of boxers, sweat pants and a t-shirt and quickly put them on.

"It's ok," Rory replied. "I can wait for the bathroom. Go back to whatever you were doing."

"It's fine, Rory. We're decent now. You can come on in," Luke said as he finished pulling the tee over his head.

She tentatively opened the door, "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, Kid. It's fine. I needed to get up anyway."

"That's what I was working on," Lorelai said with a smirk, while Luke blushed furiously.

"I am so, _so _sorry," Rory said. "I should've knocked. I just figured you'd be at the diner already. It's after six."

"I decided not to open until eight today since half the town's gonna be hung-over after the wedding last night. There's no point in wasting my time opening the diner at six when nobody's gonna be there that early."

"Again, I'm sorry I interrupted you guys," she said, still embarrassed by seeing Luke and her mother in that position. Obviously she knew that they were sleeping together, but it was one thing to know it and another to get the visual.

"It's ok, Sweets," Her mother reassured her. "Really. We should've locked the door, and then this wouldn't have happened."

"I'm gonna head downstairs and make us some breakfast," Luke said, leaving the mother and daughter alone still embarrassed by the fact that Rory had seen him attempting to have sex with her mother.

"Hey, Kid. Are you ok?"Lorelai asked.

"Yeah, just a little weirded out. I didn't mean to disturb you guys at a bad time. Sorry."

"Stop saying you're sorry. You didn't really disturb much of anything. We were just getting started really."

"Really?"

"Really, and we were still mostly covered up so you didn't even get a good view of Luke naked."

Rory blushed and said, "Thank God. I don't think that I could live with that imagery in my head forever."

"You think you're the first kid in the world who's ever walked in on their parents getting busy?"

"No, I just never thought it would happen to me. I didn't even think about the fact that you guys might be, you know, involved when I walked in. I promise I'll knock next time."

"And I'll try to remember to lock the door next time. We're gonna have to get used to that once Sid and Nancy here get old enough to do the same thing," she said as she patted her belly.

"I think you're a long ways away from that right now."

"All I can say is we really need to figure out what to do about this housing thing. One bathroom just isn't enough. Now, go on and do what you need to do. I'm gonna go check on Luke and make sure he's not hyperventilating over this."

"Tell him I'm sorry again."

"Will do," Lorelai said as she exited the room. She found Luke in the kitchen with a pot of coffee already started and pans on the stove. She wrapped her arms around his waist from behind and asked, "Are you ok?'

"Yeah, I'm mostly just embarrassed. I can't imagine what Rory's thinking right now after seeing me trying to ravage her mother."

"If it makes you feel any better, she said she's sorry and she's just as embarrassed by the situation as you are."

"Not really. I'm thinking now that maybe we should restrict our, um, activities to times when she's not here."

She released him and went to pour herself a cup of the vile decaf she knew was in the coffee pot. "You do realize that she's going to be home for the summer in just a couple of weeks. Do you seriously want to go without for three months when we're gonna be newlyweds very soon? 'Cause I'm thinking the solution is just locking the bedroom door."

"Or having Tom build us another bathroom."

"There is always the possibility of giving into my mother and letting her and my dad buy us a house. Since they're coming for dinner tonight, you know they're gonna bring it up. We haven't talked about it since before you left."

"I'm still not sure how I feel about starting out our marriage indebted to your parents."

"My mom made it clear that it wouldn't be a debt. It would be a wedding gift, and you made it very clear that if they did this, that she wasn't going to be allowed to interfere in our lives in said house, and she seemed to agree with it."

"I know, but are you sure you're ok with this, yourself? You and your mom have never the greatest of relationships. Aren't you worried that she'll use it as ammo against us in the future?"

"A little, but she seems to be sincere about just wanting to help us. The Gilmore way of helping has always been throwing money around. Normally I hate that about my parents but let's face it, we're gonna need to spend our money on other things with twins on the way. Baby furniture, car seats, clothes, bottles, diapers, and all the other stuff babies need, aside from the fact that we're seriously gonna need to upgrade to a family car."

"I thought about that too. Neither the truck or the Jeep is anywhere near big enough."

"I know. I've been thinking we should maybe trade the Wrangler in for a Cherokee."

"A Cherokee?"

"Well, if you think I'm driving a minivan, you're crazy. I hate to let go of the Jeep, but we definitely need something bigger."

"We can hold off for a little while. We've still got a little over six months until the twins are due, so we've got time. This housing thing is something else. We're going to need to be prepared ahead of time, have a nursery ready and all that stuff."

"So, what do you think we should do? My parents' offer is still out there and while I know it's kind of an expensive wedding present, what else do we really need? We just combined two households and we bought all new furniture ourselves when we did the remodel, so we're pretty much set."

"I'll tell you what, providing that dinner goes well with your parents tonight and I don't get any unnecessary sniping from your mother, I'll concede. We'll set up a time to look at the houses she's looked at and pick one that we like."

"What about your appointment with Tom?"

"It's not until Friday afternoon, so if we can make a decision between now and then, it won't be a big deal. I'll keep the appointment with him and have him just look at whatever new house we pick. That is if you're ok with leaving this house."

"I'm not quite completely ok with it, but it's necessary. We need a bigger house for our bigger family. Besides my home is wherever you and Rory are."

"If we can set this up, we have to take the girls along. We promised to let them be included in the decision-making process, since it's going to affect them too."

"Absolutely. I wouldn't think of making a decision this big without April and Rory's opinions on it."

"Without our opinion on what?" Rory said as she stepped into the room still feeling a little awkward that she'd disrupted their alone time.

"House-hunting," Lorelai answered. "I think we've pretty much decided that we're going to take your grandparents up on their offer to buy us a house as a wedding present, providing that they behave themselves tonight."

"Wow," Rory said. "You're sure you want to do that?" she asked with a glance at Luke.

"Pretty sure," Luke answered. "It just makes sense. We need a bigger place and they want to buy us one, so why not?"

"That doesn't necessarily mean that we're going to sell this house, though. We haven't decided on that part yet. Like I said before, we can keep it for you, if you want it."

"I don't know. I'd feel weird living here without you. As much as I love this house, it's you being here that makes it feel like home."

"I get that. I was just telling Luke before you walked in that wherever the two of you are is where my home is."

"Even when I get in the way and interrupt private moments?" She said trying to laugh off the embarrassment she still felt over the situation.

"Hey, it's ok," Luke said reassuringly. "You're not in the way. We just need to learn to start locking the bedroom door." He blushed still a little uncomfortable.

"And I need to learn to start knocking, "she said.

"Look at it this way, Kid," her mother added. "It's good thing you walked in when you did and not a few minutes later or you might have really seen something you didn't want to see. Believe me, I had every intention of having my way with your surrogate daddy this morning."

"Jeez." Luke said.

"Ewww, as if the visual I got wasn't enough," Rory said with a laugh, feeling a little better about the situation.

"I think the best thing we can do is just forget about it and move on," Luke said. "It happened and obsessing over it isn't going to change that."

"And it's not like I didn't know the two of you have done it. I wouldn't be getting two new siblings if you hadn't."

"Beside," Lorelai added. "I could always take a long lunch break from the inn and go visit Luke at work. He's still got that double bed up in the apartment."

"That might be a problem if Christopher's drunken ass is still passed out in it," Luke said, then felt bad when he saw the pained expression on Rory's face. "Jeez, Kid, I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault, Luke," Rory said as she reached for the coffee pot to pour herself a cup, then flopped into one of the kitchen chairs. "My dad chose to drink way too much and make an ass of himself and embarrass me at my best friend's wedding. I'm so mad at him right now I wish I was the one who'd punched him instead of Jackson."

"You might want to give him a break, Rory. It couldn't have been easy for him, being here in our town when everyone's so supportive of me and your mom being together."

Rory looked at him incredulously. "Are you honestly defending what he did?"

"No, I'm not. What he did was wrong. I'm just saying that his behavior really had nothing to do with you. It was mostly me and your mom he was upset with, not you."

"Well, it still affects me. He knows that I love the two of you and that I'm happy you're getting married and still he did that. It hurts. I thought he was really starting to come around for just me and not because he was still mooning over mom like a teenager."

"I think that's part of the problem," Lorelai said. "He's still got this teenage image of me in his head and your dad and I were really close in high school, but I'm not the same reckless teenage girl that he remembers. I'm a completely different person now than I was then. I think that's also part of the reason that we could never make it as a couple as adults. I grew up and he didn't. He's trying to get there now that he's a single dad, but it's hard. I know that from first-hand experience. I didn't immediately become a grown-up after I had you. I made stupid mistakes when you were a baby, but I had you to motivate me to get myself together. He's just now starting to go through what I went through at seventeen after I left my parents' house."

"But you _did _get yourself together. Why can't he?"

"Just give him time. I've got a twenty year head start on him."

"I'm more mature than he is. It's not right."

"Sorry, Hon, but he was really hot in high school," she said with a grin.

"Hey!" Luke said.

"But you're _way_ hotter, Babe. I'm not into the high school boys anymore. I want a real man and that's what I have in you."

"Glad to hear it," he said.

"The point I'm making, Rory is that you shouldn't cut your dad out of your life without at least giving him a chance to redeem himself. Luke's right. His outburst last night wasn't about you."

"I'll try," Rory said thinking about what they'd both said. She wondered if her dad would even try to redeem himself or if he'd just use this as one more reason to start staying away again.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Christopher groaned as the sunlight hit his face. He shifted to turn away from him, not yet ready to lift his aching head from the pillow. He was just getting comfortable again when he heard a gruff voice saying," Get up!" He turned to see Luke walking toward him with a steaming cup of coffee.

"Oh, it's you," He said sleepily as he struggled to sit up and was rewarded for his efforts with a stabbing pain in his head. It took him a moment to realize that he was still fully dressed in his suit from the night before.

"Yeah, it's me," Luke replied a little crustily. "You're in my building. Here," Luke handed him the coffee cup. "I figured you'd need this right about now."

Christopher took the cup from his rival and sipped at the hot black beverage. "Thanks, "he said. "Good coffee." He struggled to remember the night before and how he'd gotten where he was.

"Thanks," Luke said, noncommittally.

"You said this is your building. How'd I get here?"

"Jess, Jackson and I brought you up here. I wasn't about to let you sleep it off in the square. Rory would have killed me for that."

Chris took another sip of his coffee as fuzzy memories of the night before began to come back to him. He lightly rubbed her sore jaw. "Did you hit me?"

Luke chuckled as he recalled the punch Jackson had thrown and said, "No. As much as I wanted to, that wasn't me. That was Jackson."

"Jackson? Sookie's Jackson?"

"That's the one."

"Why the hell would he hit me?"

"He's my friend. That's how it is here in the Hollow. We all look out for each other. Plus, you kinda of had it coming. You made a crude embarrassing speech at Lane's wedding last night, humiliating your daughter and her mother, insulting me, and then you took a drunken swing at both me and my nephew. Jackson decided it needed to end because you weren't about to calm down on your own or listen to reason. Rory begged you to stop and you didn't."

"I drank too much. I didn't mean it," Christopher said trying to shake the cobwebs from his head.

"That's a load of crap and you know it. Alcohol doesn't make you say things you don't mean. It just lowers your inhibitions enough that you actually say what's on your mind."

"Look, I'm…"

"Don't say you're sorry to me. Don't you dare! I know you wouldn't mean it. I know you hate me and that's just fine with me. I'm not part of your fan club either. I'd just as soon see you drop off the face of the earth as set foot in Stars Hollow again, but that would break Rory's heart. As crazy as it sounds, she still loves you even though you've done nothing but disappoint her. You're her father and she needs you in her life."

"Jealous much?" Chris sneered.

"Me? Jealous of you? Hardly." he said recalling his emotional breakdown the night before and the way that Lorelai had reassured him that she only had eyes for him.

"Sounds like jealousy to me. I know the feeling well."

"Yeah, that's it. I'm _so _jealous of you. Let me see, what could I be jealous of? Could it be the fact that I've built my own business from the ground up and kept is successfully running for sixteen years, when none of your business ventures have lasted even half that long? Or maybe I'm jealous that I have a better relationship with Rory than you do and that she comes to me for fatherly advice instead of you," he took a small measure of satisfaction in the look on Christopher's face when he said this and continued. "No, I got it," he said, "I'm jealous because I'm the one Lorelai's gonna marry in five weeks. I'm the only she's having a family with and the one she shares her bed with. And, oh yeah, it was _my_ name she was calling out last night when we were making love. Boy, there's a lot to be jealous of there."

"All right, already! I get it! You won! You got her fair and square!" He swung his legs over the side of the bed and took another sip of his coffee, willing it to make his headache go away. "You're really loving this, aren't you?"

"You brought it all on yourself, Christopher. Now, what I would suggest with Rory is a ton of groveling 'cause she's pretty pissed at you right now for your asinine behavior last night. You've still got a shot at fixing things with her, but only if you're sincere. She's got a highly tuned bullshit detector. While you're at it, you owe Lorelai an apology too."

"I figured you'd be telling me to stay away from her after last night."

"What good would it do? You're gonna do what you're gonna do no matter what I say and we both know that Lorelai will never tell you to stay away as long as Rory still lives at home at least part of the time. I've accepted the fact that being part of her life means having you come around once in awhile, now you need to accept the fact that you visiting Rory here in Stars Hollow means that you're going to have to deal with me too, because I'm not going anywhere."

Chris nodded. "I get it. I don't like it, but I get it."

"I don't much like it either, but I'm willing to put up with a lot for Lorelai. I love her with all my heart and I know you do too, but the fact is, she chose _me_. I can't tell you why. I think she must be completely out of her mind. I'm amazed every day that she actually wants to be with me. I know that pisses you off, but that's the way it is and there's nothing you can do about it. You had your chance with her but you blew it and lost her. If you keep on doing things like the bonehead stunt you pulled last night, you're gonna lose Rory too."

"I bet you'd just love that, wouldn't you? Then you could just take my place completely."

"No, I wouldn't love that. Granted, I think I've made it pretty clear that I don't like having you in our lives, but it would hurt Rory too much not to have you around, and it would hurt Lorelai to see Rory hurting and seeing them hurting makes me hurt too. Now, I've said all I have to say on the subject. The rest is up to you. If you need more coffee to clear your head, I've got a ton of it downstairs, not to mention food if you're hungry. I'm gonna head back down there and get back to work and I expect to see you down there as soon as you get yourself together. Whether you decide to stay to eat or just take off is up to you. It makes no difference to me either way." With that said, he left his former home leaving Christopher pondering what he'd just said.

As Luke stepped through the curtain into the diner, he smiled at seeing Lorelai perched on her normal stool at the end of the counter by the cash register. She was the only one in the diner at the moment. "Hi," he said warmly as he greeted her with a kiss. "You here for lunch?"

"Mm-hmmm, And maybe a little dessert," she said with a mischievous glint in her eyes.

"We'll have to see about that one. I just came from waking Christopher up."

"He's still up there?"

"For now, but I told him not to stay up there too long." He looked at the coffee cup in front of his fiancée and said, "Please, tell me that's decaf."

"Yes, Officer, it's decaf. Caesar won't let me have anything else thanks to you."

"Good. So, what do you want to eat?"

"As nuts as this sounds for me, I'm thinking turkey club and a side salad."

Luke's eyes widened in surprise. "Is this some sort of April Fool's joke 'cause this is the last day of April, so it's a little late." Christopher stepped through the curtain holding his empty coffee cup and stood there a little awkwardly. "Have a seat if you're staying to eat," Luke said to him.

"Ok, thanks," Chris replied and took the seat at the other end of the counter and picked up a menu.

"No, this is no joke," Lorelai said answering Luke's question. "The joke is that your kids seem to want to eat healthy like you and the joke's on me. I've been craving fruits and vegetables non-stop lately, especially apples."

Luke chuckled at this as he wrote down Lorelai's order and handed it off to Caesar. He turned back to her and said, "If I'd known getting you pregnant was the way to get you to eat healthier, I'd have done it years ago."

"That's just mean! Besides we weren't together years ago."

"Well, we should've been. We were both just too dumb to see what was right in front of our faces. I'm glad we finally did, though," he added with a smile as he leaned across the counter and kissed her again, not caring that Christopher was watching. He picked up the coffee pot and refilled Christopher's cup, knowing that he'd need it. "What can I get you, Christopher?"

"Is it too late in the day to get pancakes? I've heard your pancakes are a great hangover cure," he said remembering how Rory seemed to feel better the day before after eating the pancakes Luke had made for her.

"Normally, yeah. I usually stop serving breakfast at eleven, but since you're not the only one hung-over, I'm making an exception today. "Plain, blueberry, banana, or chocolate chip?"

"Blueberry."

"You want anything to go with them. Eggs, bacon, sausage, ham?"

"Scrambled eggs sound good with some bacon." They both turned as the bell over the door jingled and Morey walked in holding Babette up.

"You got it," Luke said as he wrote everything down, handed it off to Caesar and walked to the table by the front window with the coffee pot. He chuckled a little when he got to the table Morey and Babette had just seated themselves at when he saw her lay her head down on the table much like Rory had done the day before. "Is she ok?" he asked.

"She will be after a little coffee and some food," her husband replied. "She just drank a little too much tequila last night after Kirk fired the bartenders and it became serve yourself. She served herself a little too much." Luke laughed as he recalled the way Kirk and Lulu had chased each other through the square arguing over whether or not Lulu had been flirting with the bartender who'd put extra fruit in her drink. Luke picked up the cups off the table and filled them both.

"Don't say that word," Babette grumbled.

"What word, Babs?"

"Tequila," She said as she lifted her head off the table and took a sip of her coffee. "That's the most evil word in the world right now."

Lorelai laughed as she watched Babette struggling. "I know that feeling well, Babette," she said. "In fact, Rory wouldn't be here if it weren't for the evilness of Joes Cuervo."

"Just what the hell does that mean, Lor?" Christopher asked affronted. "Are you saying you wouldn't have slept with me if you weren't drunk?"

"Uh-oh," Morey said.

Lorelai turned to Christopher and answered, "No, that's not what I'm saying. I'm saying that I'd have made sure we were more careful about taking precautions than we were had I not been drunk."

"Like you were worried about taking precautions with him," Christopher snapped gesturing to Luke.

"Uh-oh," Morey said again this time joined by his wife.

"Oh My God," Lorelai said. "You _so_ need to get over this teenage fantasy you have that you and Rory and I are going to be one big happy family! I'm not the same wild fifteen year old girl I was when we were together and I have different needs now. Needs that you have absolutely no comprehension of and Luke does. We are going to be husband and wife in just a little over a month and we're having kids together, something we've been planning on since we got engaged almost a year ago. The only way you're ever going to have any peace in your life is if you let go of your childish fantasies and just accept things for the way they are. I'm in love with Luke and I'm going to marry him and if you can't get that through your thick head, then I don't want you coming to our town again."

"So, what? You're just gonna cut me out of my daughter's life?"

"That's not my decision. Whether you're a part of Rory's life is between you and her. She's an adult and more than capable of making her own decisions about who she wants in her life and who she doesn't. As for me, if you can't get your act together, I can't be your friend anymore. I'm not gonna choose you over the father of my unborn children. You and I made a mistake when we were young that resulted in Rory, but even if I could go back and change it, I wouldn't. She turned out to be one of the best things that ever happened to me. She could've been the same for you if you'd have just made an effort to be a part of her life when she was growing up. You can never get back all you missed out on with her, but you can be there for her now, if you really try. The thing is you have to realize that this perfect family fantasy that you have in your head is _never_ gonna happen. My family life is with Luke." She turned back to her fiancé who was standing there silently. She was surprised he hadn't said anything. "You have anything to add?"

"Nope, I'm good. I think you just about covered it," he said walking back behind the counter and replacing the coffee pot back on the burner. "Besides, I pretty much said everything I had to say upstairs, right, Christopher?"

"Yeah, you made things very clear," Christopher grumbled.

Luke was about to say something else when the phone rang. He turned to answer it, "_Luke's."_

"So, you're alive," His ex-wife said sardonically.

"What the hell do you want, Nicole?" He asked impatiently turning back to Lorelai.

Lorelai looked at him and mouthed, "Nicole?"

Luke nodded uncomfortably shrugging his shoulders, and continued to Nicole, "This is getting a little obsessive. What's going on? Did your new marriage fall apart already and you decided you want go slumming again?"

"Don't flatter yourself," Nicole snapped back. "Believe me the last thing in the world I want to do is be calling you, but I have no choice according to my bosses. This is work-related."

"Work-related? Wow, you must me making some big bucks if you're calling me on a Sunday. Now, tell what your job could possibly have to do with me? You're a lawyer and I'm just the lowly diner owner you used to be married to. I fail to see the connection."

"I've been calling you for three weeks. Are you honestly telling me that you haven't talked to Taylor in that time?"

"I've been out of town for two weeks, so I just got your messages late last night."

"Right," she said skeptically. "That's the same line you had Caesar and Lane feeding me when I've called the diner."

"It's the truth. I _have _been out of town."

Lorelai having had enough of the one-sided conversation she was hearing, slid off her stool and walked behind the counter and whispered in Luke's ear in a sultry voice, "I'm really glad you came home, too. I missed having you in our bed, doing all kinds of dirty things to me." She wrapped her arm around him and began lightly peppering his neck with kisses. It may have been wrong, but he smiled a little at her obvious jealousy.

"I'm sorry, Luke," Nicole said in an exasperated voice. "I know better. I know from personal experience that it's like pulling teeth to get you to leave Stars Hollow."

"Well, maybe you don't know me as well as you think you do." He sighed as Lorelai continued what she was doing and lowered her hand to his butt.

"So, if you were out of town, where exactly were you?" She knew he wouldn't be able to come up with an answer. She was sure he was just dodging her calls.

"Not that it's any of your business, but I was in Philadelphia," He said as Lorelai started to move her hand to the front of his jeans. He grabbed her hand to stop her, not willing to let things go that far while people were in the diner. "Lorelai, stop it."

"Fine," she pouted and stopped what she was doing.

"Why am I not surprised that Lorelai's there?" Nicole asked sarcastically. "So, are you sleeping with her yet? I always knew it was only a matter of time before you did."

"Look, can we wrap this up? I have work to do."

"So, you're not going to answer my question?"

"Sure, I'll answer your question. None of your goddamn business! That's the nice thing about a divorce, Nicole! I don't have to tell you shit about what goes on in my private life!" He slammed the phone back onto its cradle, grabbed Lorelai by the hand and led her through the curtain and said, "Caesar, you're in charge!" When they reached the apartment and he locked the door behind him, he turned Lorelai around so that she was pinned against the frosted glass in the door. He then proceeded to kiss her passionately, plundering her mouth with his tongue as he lifted her up slightly, running his hand under her skirt and stroking her thigh. She wrapped her arms around him, anxious to feel all of him pressing into her. He released her mouth and whispered in a gravelly voice, "Do you have any idea what you were doing to me down there?"

"I think I have a pretty good idea," she replied as she reached between them, undid the button and zipper on his jeans and slipped her hand inside, causing him to groan at the contact. "That was kind of the point," she said and gasped as he turned the tables on her and moved hand from her thigh to the inside of her panties, yanking them down. She kicked them away as he lifted her up so that she was straddling him.

"This is the way you wanted it last night, isn't it?" He growled into her ear as he began to ravage her neck with his lips and teeth much as he had the night before.

"God, Yes!" She hissed as he gave her what she wanted.

Rory walked into the diner and stared a little bewildered as she noticed her dad sitting at the far end of the counter and her mom's purse sitting on the other end of the counter, but there was no sign of her or Luke. As she stood there, Caesar came out of the kitchen, carrying plates of food, setting one in front of her dad and another at the opposite end, where her mother had obviously been sitting at some point. "Hey, Caesar, Have you seen my mom and Luke?"

"Yeah, he answered. "This is her food. She was here a little while ago, but then Luke got a call from Nicole and he started yelling. You know how he gets, then he just said I was in charge and they went upstairs."

"Nicole called? As in Luke's ex-wife?" She was surprised by this. She wondered why she'd be calling him when their marriage didn't exactly end on the best of terms.

"Yeah, she's been calling here for a coupla' weeks now. I kept telling her he wasn't here, but she acted like she didn't believe me. Like I'd lie about something like that. You want anything?" He asked her picking up the order pas Luke had left behind.

"Yeah, coffee, cheeseburger, rare and chili fries. Thanks." Caesar poured her a cup of coffee and returned to the kitchen as she sank down on the empty stool next to her mom's.

"If you ask me," Babette said. "The way those two were looking at each other, I'd say they went upstairs for a little nooner."

"You don't know for sure that that's what they're doing," Christopher said not wanting to admit to himself that she was probably right. He turned to the plate of food in front of him and began to eat.

"Oh, come on, Christopher. It was pretty obvious with the way she was attacking him while he was on the phone."

"It looked like she was a little jealous to me," Morey added as Caesar returned from the kitchen with their food, planting a big plate of pancakes in front of Babette and a burger in front of Morey.

"Thanks, Caesar," Babette said. "This oughtta help my stomach from feeling like it's gonna turn inside out."

"No prob," he replied as he went back to the kitchen to get started on Rory's burger.

"I don't know, Morey. I don't see my mom being the jealous type. Luke, yeah, but not Mom."

"Are you kidding? She was totally jealous from the second Luke started dating Nicole and they had never even dated at that point."

"Barbette's got a point, Honey," Miss Patty added as she walked in the door mid-conversation. "And when Rachel came back to town and Luke hooked back up with her, you should have heard her pumping me for information about her. Your mom's got a jealous streak worse than Luke's. She's just more subtle about it than he is." Patty walked to the doorway of the kitchen and yelled, "Caesar, darling, can I get an order of chocolate chip pancakes here?"

"You got it, Miss Patty," he called back.

"You too, huh?" Rory asked.

"Oh, honey, I hope you never have a hangover this bad. I wonder what the chances are of getting Caesar to leave the kitchen long enough to get me some coffee." She sank down into the chair opposite Morey.

"I got it," Rory said as she walked behind the counter and retrieved the pot. She poured Patty a cup and topped off Babette and Morey's while she was at it before returning to her seat.

"Luke doesn't mind you just walking behind the counter like that?" her dad asked incredulously.

"No, he doesn't. I'm family to him and besides that I've helped out around here before. Like when his uncle died four years ago and he was busy trying to make funeral arrangements. Mom and I both helped out then."

"So, he just put you two to work?"

"No, he didn't. We volunteered to help because he'd done so much for us. We had to be there for him when he needed help and we didn't mind doing it. That's what people who care about each other do. Unlike some people, who make their daughters promise after promise, always swearing that this time will be different and then doing the same old tired crap over and over again."

"I'm sorry, Rory. I drank too much and I said some things that were out of line."

"You know, that bit's getting tired too," she said then added in a mocking voice, "'I'm sorry, Rory. I was drunk. I didn't mean to humiliate you and your mother. I just can't take it that your mom's happy with anyone but me.'"

"I've never said that," Christopher said defensively.

"No, but that's what it boils down to. You say you're her friend, but if you were truly her friend, you'd let go of your own selfish interests and realize that she is happy with Luke and that he gives her all she needs. It doesn't matter that he's small-town and you're uptown or that you have big buckets of money and he doesn't. He loves Mom and she loves him and they make each other insanely happy."

"It's kind of sickening, sometimes," Patty chimed in. "But it's also romantic. It kind of reminds me of my third marriage," she said with a smile as she internally reminisced.

"What are you even still doing here, Dad? I figured Luke would've tossed your ass out of here by now."

"Well, he didn't."

"That just shows that he's the bigger person if he's willing to put up with you being around after what happened last night."

"Rory, I'm sorry. Really sorry."

"I know, Dad you're always sorry, but you never do anything to change it." She got up, walked behind the counter to grab a to-go cup, poured her coffee into it and called to the kitchen. "Hey, Caesar, can I get that burger to go?"

"Sure thing, Kid!' He called back.

"So, you're leaving?"

"Yep." Caesar stepped out of the kitchen and handed her a Styrofoam to-go container. "Thanks, Caesar. Tell Mom and Luke I'll see them at home later."

"Will do."

Rory took her order and left the diner not once looking back at her father.


	36. Chapter 36

"We never made it to the bed," Lorelai said with a bemused smile as she and Luke were straightening their clothing.

"That's fine with me," Luke replied as he refastened his jeans. "I think I'd feel a little weird about it anyway, considering Christopher was just sleeping there."

"Not as weird as he'd feel if he knew all the very dirty things you've done to me in that bed. I bet that would really burn his ass."

Luke laughed and said, "I had that same thought when we dumped him in it last night. It sounds mean, but I actually wondered what his reaction would be if he knew that the bed he was passed out in was where we first made love or how many times we've made love in it since then."

"So, there's still a little jealous streak there," she said.

"Look who's talking," He retorted. "What was with you and that display downstairs while I was on the phone with Nicole?"

"Just trying to remind you who you belong to," she said with a devilish grin, trying to laugh off her insecurity.

"Hey, listen to me," He said softly as he reached out to cup her face in his hand. "You don't have any reason to be jealous of Nicole. There's nothing there anymore." He kissed her tenderly, and then continued. "I love you and only you."

"I know that."

"Then what's with the craziness?"

"Just hearing you talking to Nicole, I got a little nutty. I mean, I know we're getting married soon, but you were married to her first. And it just hit me that I'm going to be your second wife."

"I thought you said that didn't bother you."

"I didn't think it did, but when you were talking to her, I realized that it bothered me more than I wanted to admit. I know that it's something you can't change and that I'm the one you want to be with, but it's still a little crazy-making."

"I get that, but l've been thinking a lot about the situation since we had our talk after my little breakdown last night and I've come to the conclusion that my failed marriage was something that I needed to go through in order to be ready to be a good husband to you."

"How do you figure?"

"Well, I think we both know that I was a lousy husband to Nicole. I didn't know what it meant to be a real partner to somebody then and adjust my life around the other person's needs, which was completely stupid of me because I was always doing that for you. If you needed me, I'd always drop whatever I was doing to help you out and you always did the same for me. I could never have had a real marriage with Nicole because I wasn't willing to do the same for her. It was the same with Rachel that last time she and I tried to make it work. I couldn't stand sharing my space with her. I never had that problem with you. I built you a shelf in the bathroom in here so you'd have space in my home, I broke down and bought that double bed just for you, I bought a coffee maker for the apartment, even though I don't drink that poison, I picked out those wedding bands for us, even though I'm not much of a jewelry guy and I plan on wearing mine too. I never even had one with Nicole, plus you're the only woman who's ever had a key to this place. I never let another woman that close to me. In a way, it's like we've have been husband and wife for years. What you and I have is a _real _marriage, even though we haven't made it official yet."

Lorelai's eyes filled with tears as she soaked in Luke's words and it really became clear to her that he was truly all in. "I can't wait to be your wife," she said as she wrapped her arms around him and let her tears fall onto his well-worn flannel.

Luke held her, rocking her slightly as she let out everything she was feeling. When her tears subsided, he lifted her chin, looked into her eyes and said, "And I can't wait to be your husband." He placed a soft kiss on her lips.

"I'm sorry about the tears. I guess I'm a little hormonal. Blame it on Sid and Nancy. They're making me do all kinds of nutty thing, like eating healthy for one."

"Sid and Nancy?"

"Sid Vicious of The Sex Pistols and his girlfriend Nancy Spungen?" she said.

"I get the reference. I'm just not sure I want that imagery surrounding our kids. Sid killed Nancy."

"What would you suggest?"

"I don't know, George and Gracie?"

"Too cliché'," she said as she opened the door and they began to walk down the hall toward the stairs leading to the diner. "Jan and Dean?"

"No, Bonne and Clyde?"

"So, bank robbers are ok, but not murderers?

"I guess not," he said with a laugh as they stepped into the diner.

"How about Captain and Tennille?"

"How about not? Siskel and Ebert," he said knowing this was getting silly.

"Ooh, I got it! Donny and Marie!"

"What's your obsession with singers?"

"You know how much I love music."

"Donny and Marie it is then," he conceded.

"Oh, hey, my food's here," she said as she resumed her seat at the counter. "Good thing, too, since I worked up quite an appetite." She gave Luke a wink.

"Nice, Lorelai," He grumbled, looking around the diner and noticing that there were more people there than when they'd gone upstairs. "Just tell everyone what we were doing up there."

"That's ok, Sugah, "Babette said. "We already pretty much figured that out on our own the way you dragged Lorelai off to your cave."

"Yeah, Honey," Miss Patty added. "Don't mind us. We already know you knocked her up. It's not like that happened without a little nookie."

"Besides that," Gypsy added. "We all knew the first time you slept together 'cause of that time Lorelai walked in here from upstairs wearing nothing but your shirt. That was pretty funny."

"Glad we could entertain you," Luke said mockingly as he walked over to the table Taylor was seated at and asked him. "Taylor, have you ordered yet?"

"Well, since it seems you were too busy with…other activities to be serving your customers, I haven't yet been asked what I wanted," Taylor replied sarcastically.

"Good. You're coming with me," He said grabbing Taylor by the arm, forcing him up his seat and out the front door. He was determined to get to the bottom of Nicole's phone calls, plus he was anxious to get away from the other townies discussing his and Lorelai's sex life.

Taylor wrenched himself out of Luke's grip once they were outside the door. "Lucas, stop! What is this all about?"

"That's exactly what I want to know! Why is my ex-wife calling me out of the blue when we have so much as uttered one word to each other in two years?"

"How would I know about something like that?"Taylor said evasively, not looking at Taylor. "Who knows? Maybe you've got another child out there that you never knew about. It's not like you've been exactly responsible in that area. Look at Lorelai."

Luke's blood began to boil. "Lorelai and I are engaged and have been for almost a year! You know that! In fact, you were the first one to know we were engaged! Not to mention the fact that you knew I wanted kids with Lorelai from all that time you were helping me with the Twickham house!"

"Which was a complete waste of my time, if you recall. After all that harassment you piled on me for two months, you backed out of the deal less than a day after signing the papers and that house is still standing empty!"

"That has nothing to do with what's going on now! I know that the reason Nicole's calling has nothing to do with that! She said it had to do with work and she specifically mentioned you! Now, you will tell me what the hell's going on or I'll…"

"You'll what? Throw another frying pan at me?"

Inside the diner, everyone except Christopher was gathered around the window watching the scene outside with some interest.

"Ooh," Babette said excitedly. "Luke's turning red!"

"He's reaching for the cap!" Miss Patty added.

"Oh, Man," Morey chimed in. "Taylor looks like he's about to bust something."

"Luke looks like he's about to bust Taylor," Gypsy said.

"God, I hope he hits him this time," Babette said as Luke and Taylor continued to argue. "I always wanted to see Luke let loose and finally knock Taylor's lights out."

Lorelai watched the scene with a bemused expression on her face, while Christopher sat staring in disbelief at the freak show in front of him. "Is this how you people entertain yourselves?"

"Hey, this is better than cable," Miss Patty said. "Though not as racy."

Chris continued to stare unable to believe that this was the town she wanted to live in and that she'd chosen the screaming man outside over him. He shook his head and turned back to his plate, just as Gypsy said, "Uh-oh, he's coming back in." The townies scrambled to return to their seats and pretended to show enormous interest in their food or the menus or anything but what had just happened, not wanting to incur Luke's wrath.

"Do _not_ follow me in here!" Luke shouted as he stormed in and stomped to his usual spot behind the counter. Taylor ignored him and attempted to return to the seat he'd vacated just as Luke was grabbing the coffee from its burner. "What part of 'do not follow me in here' was not clear to you, Taylor?" He walked to the table Taylor was standing in front of.

"Let me remind you, Young Man, that I have been eating in this establishment since the day you first opened it!"

"And as the proprietor of this establishment, I have the right to refuse service to anyone and right now I'm refusing you! Now, out!"

"You'll be sorry! You know, I've always been a generous tipper," Taylor said in a vaguely threatening tone.

Luke scoffed at this. "Generous? Seventy-five cents on a ten dollar order is not generous! That's not even ten percent and the standard these days is fifteen!" He menacingly waved the coffee pot in Taylor's face." You know what, it doesn't matter, just get out of here!"

"But I still haven't eaten," Taylor protested.

"I don't care. Go to Al's or JoJo's! Maybe they'll give into your extortion tactics!" He slammed the coffee pot down, sloshing some of its contents on the table. "I'm not going to!"

"Fine, I'll go to Al's, but just remember that Al is not the one asking favors from me!" Taylor said in a huff as he left the diner.

Luke picked up the pot. "Coffee, Gypsy?"

"Yeah, Thanks," Gypsy answered.

He made the rounds through the diner refilling coffee cups before returning behind the counter and replacing the pot and grabbed the decaf pot to refill Lorelai's cup. "What was that all about?" his fiancée asked, burning with curiosity. The remaining townies looked at him expectantly, hoping they'd hear what the fight was about too.

"I don't want to talk about it," he said gruffly as he turned to return the pot and grabbed a towel to clean up the mess he'd made on the table Taylor had been sitting at.

Lorelai left her seat to follow him and placed her hand gently on his shoulder."Come on, Hon. He's obviously got you upset about something. Just tell me what it is."

"It's just Taylor being…well, Taylor," He turned to look at her. "I promise I'll give you all the details when I've had time to calm down. I'm too mad right now!" He stalked back behind the counter and threw the towel roughly into the bucket underneath it.

The townies turned back to their earlier activities, clearly disappointed that they weren't going to find out what Taylor had done to set Luke off again. "Hey, Luke," Gypsy piped up. "I'm ready to order now."

Luke grabbed his order pad and returned to work, still seething over Taylor. After Lorelai left to return to the inn and Christopher left to return to Boston, he spent the next couple of hours busying himself with work, trying to figure out what he was going to do.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Early that evening, Luke and Rory were busy in the kitchen, preparing for dinner with the elder Gilmores, the awkwardness of their morning having dissipated.

"So, Caesar said you stopped by the diner today and got into it with your dad," Luke said. "Do you want to talk about it?" He wasn't anxious to talk about Christopher again, but he knew that Rory might need someone to lean on.

"Not really. It wouldn't do any good. It's the same old stuff all over again. He just never changes," she replied with a sigh as she chopped vegetables for the salad to go with their dinner.

"If you change your mind, you know I'm here," He said, stirring the sauce on the stove.

"I know. Thanks. I'm sorry I didn't stick around to hang with you and Mom at the diner. I just couldn't take being in the same room with my dad anymore. He just makes me so mad," she said with a frustrated sigh.

"I know that feeling. I don't much like being in the same room with your dad either," he said with chuckle, trying to lighten the mood a little. Their conversation was interrupted by the ringing of the doorbell. "That must be your grandparents."

"I'll get it," she said as she reached for a towel to wipe her hands on and headed to the door. It was indeed Emily and Richard on the other side of the door. "Hi, come on in. Can I get you two a drink?" she asked ushering them inside.

"That would be lovely, Rory," Emily said. "Thank you."

Rory proceeded to the makeshift bar in the living room and poured a drink for each of them. When they both had their drinks in hand she said. "We're hanging out in the kitchen so we can get dinner ready."

"Please, tell me your mother's not cooking," Emily said with a grimace as she and her husband followed Rory into the kitchen.

"Please," Luke said. "As if I'd let Lorelai attempt anything in the kitchen that doesn't require the use of the microwave."

Rory giggled at this and said, "Besides, Mom's not home yet. She stayed over at the inn a little longer than usual since she took an extra long lunch break today." She returned to her spot at the counter next to Luke and resumed preparing the salad."Right, Luke?" she said with a suggestive grin.

Luke blushed and said, "No comment."

"So, Luke, when are we going to hit the driving range again?" Richard said slapping him on the back.

Luke winced at the contact and said, "Ouch."

"What's the matter, Luke? Did Mom get a little rough with you?" Rory teased.

He blushed again and said, "No, she's just like a cat. You know how they get when they're…um…content and they dig their claws in. Well, that's your mother."

"Ewww! _Way _too much information!" She said nudging him with her elbow.

"Hey, you started this!" he said nudging her back.

"So, Rory," Emily interjected anxious to change the subject. "How was your Asian friend's wedding?" She sat at table and took a sip of her cocktail.

"Her name is Lane," Rory said, a little irritated that her grandmother still refused to call her best friend by her name. "And it was fine."

"You don't sound entirely convinced of that," Richard said, joining his wife at the table.

"The wedding itself was great! It was nice to see Lane and Zach so happy."

"But?"Richard said urging her to continue.

"But Dad got a little drunk…"

"A little?" Luke scoffed.

Rory glared at Luke and continued, "…and he said some really embarrassing, out of line things about Mom and Luke."

"What was your father even doing there?" Emily asked in disbelief. "He doesn't even know the bride and groom all that well, does he?"

"I thought he was really trying to be a better man about this whole situation and I didn't want to be dateless for my best friend's wedding since I no longer have a boyfriend, so I invited him as my date, which turned out to be a huge mistake."

"Lane and Zach didn't seem to mind," Luke said. "They actually seemed to be entertained by the whole thing, especially when Jackson knocked his block off." Luke smirked a little, recalling watching his fiancée's ex crumple to the ground.

"Jackson hit him?" Emily queried, stunned. She didn't like Christopher as she'd made very plain when she'd gone to see him in Boston, but she thought violence was a little unnecessary.

"If you'd been there, you'd have understood," Rory explained. "He totally started it.. He took a swing at Jess, then Luke, Jackson just ended it before things got really out of hand.

"Hmmm…," Emily murmured thoughtfully. She thought that she'd made it perfectly clear that she didn't want him doing anything to disrupt her daughter's impending nuptials, but apparently she was wrong. She wondered if she needed to make another trip to Boston. Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the front door opening.

"Luke, Rory?" Lorelai called as she walked in the door.

"Kitchen!" They called in unison.

"Jinx," Rory said, nudging Luke again. "You owe me a coke."

"Like you've been drinking much Coke lately since you've been legal," Luke replied.

"True, but some more of this wine would be nice," she said indicating her half empty glass.

"You got it," Luke said reaching for the bottle that was on the countertop to his left, topping off Rory's glass and his own. He set the bottle back down and took a sip of his wine.

"You're drinking wine, Luke?" Emily questioned. "Not your usual beer?"

"I don't always drink beer, besides this wine goes pretty well with the Italian food I'm serving tonight," he replied as Lorelai walked in and greeted him with a kiss.

"Mmmm," she said. "You taste like wine. It's so not fair that everyone can have a drink, but me."

"If it makes you feel any better, I bought you some apple juice to satisfy your cravings when I went to the market after work today. It's in the fridge."

"That's so sweet," she said as she reached into the cabinet for a drinking glass, then walked to the refrigerator to retrieve the juice and pour herself a glass. "I can't believe you went to Doose's after the thing with Taylor earlier."

"I didn't. I drove clear across town to avoid Doose's. I'm not quite ready to deal with Taylor yet, but I had to do some shopping for dinner tonight, since you didn't bother to keep real food in the house while I was gone."

Lorelai returned the bottle of juice to the refrigerator. "You're such a good provider," she said as she kissed him sweetly.

Luke turned off the stove and removed the sauce he'd been stirring from the heat as he reached for her, laying one hand gently on her stomach. "Gotta take care of our kids," he said with a smile.

"Kids?' Emily asked, bewildered. "Are you having more than one?"

"Um…yeah," Lorelai answered awkwardly, forgetting that she hadn't yet told her mother. "Twins. We found out on our first appointment with the doctor."

"That was more than three weeks ago and you're just telling us about it now?" She was a little hurt that her daughter hadn't thought to share this very important piece of news with her when she was trying so hard to be supportive of her life.

"I just hadn't had the chance to tell you yet. I'm sorry."

"What do you mean you haven't had the chance to tell us yet? You've been to two Friday dinners since then, not to mention all the time I've been here trying to help with your wedding. So, what is it, Lorelai? It's ok for me to know things about your wedding plans, but not something as important as the fact that I'm going to have _two _new grandchildren and not just one?" She turned to her husband and said, "Richard, can you believe that she kept something like this from us?"Richard shifted uncomfortably in his seat, not wanting to admit that he'd known about the twins the whole time.

"Look, Mom, It's not that we didn't want to tell you. We just wanted to wait to tell you when we were together and since Luke's been out of town, we decided to wait."

"But you were at that dinner together right after you found out. Why didn't you tell us then?"

"Because we hadn't told Rory and April yet and we wanted them to know first since these babies are going to be their siblings. And besides, it's not like you have any room to talk. You haven't exactly been forthcoming with the truth yourself lately," she spat at her mother.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Take any road trips to Boston lately?"Lorelai countered hotly.

"Boston?" Richard inquired, looking at his wife in surprise.

"How did you know about that?" Emily asked her daughter.

"Christopher's got a big mouth, especially when he's drunk, like he was at Lane's wedding last night. He said in his drunken speech that you'd told him to stay away from our wedding."

"It's true," she admitted. "I did."

"Why would you do that after you promised not to interfere in their lives?"Richard asked.

"I wasn't about to let that man ruin our daughter's wedding day. I did what I did to protect Lorelai."

"I appreciate that, Mom, but I'm a grown woman. I don't need you protecting me," she said with a sigh as she sat down in the chair next to her mother. "I really do appreciate the thought, though," she added a little more calmly as she realized that her mother's heart was in the right place.

"Good," Emily said.

"So, Luke, I know you just got back, but have the two of you given anymore thought to your housing situation? With twins on the way, it's something you really need to consider."

"Especially after that incident this morning," Lorelai said, shooting an impish grin at Rory.

"What incident?" Emily asked.

"Hey, I already said I was sorry that I disturbed you guys this morning," Rory said. "Believe me I am completely sorry that I saw what I saw when I interrupted."

"That's what you get for walking into Mommy's bedroom without knocking," Lorelai teased her daughter.

"What on earth are you talking about?" Emily questioned.

Luke shifted a little awkwardly and answered, "Rory walked into our bedroom this morning to get to the bathroom and kinda interrupted a…um…" he hesitated a little before continuing,"…private moment."

"I don't know why you're both getting so worked up about this," Lorelai said and glanced at Rory again. "All you really interrupted was some kissing."

"But it was _naked _kissing," Rory protested. "I _so _did not want to see that."

"You saw them naked together?" Emily asked incredulously, stunned that Lorelai hadn't had the good sense to lock the bedroom door before beginning such activities while her daughter was in the house.

"No, she didn't," Luke replied. "All…um…vital parts were covered up." He was glad for that; the situation would have been even more awkward if Rory had gotten a good look at parts of his anatomy he didn't want her to see.

"Besides, it really was just kissing. We hadn't gotten to the good stuff yet," Lorelai added with a wicked grin directed at Luke. "We took care of that at lunch time."

"Jeez, Lorelai," Luke said as he felt his face turning red again and turned back to the stove, picking up a basting brush, yanking open the oven door and immersing himself in coating the bread in the over with the garlic sauce he'd had on the stove.

"Lorelai, I'm surprised by you cavalier attitude about this situation," Emily said. "Clearly Luke and Rory are both deeply embarrassed by what happened and you're making light of it. You and Luke should have been more careful, knowing that Rory was in the house."

"Mom, come on, it's not like we invited her into our bedroom to watch us making out. We'd been apart for two weeks. It's only natural that we'd want to reconnect and make up for lost time. We'd just missed each other so much that we didn't think about locking the door."

Luke slammed the oven door shut, having finished with his task. "Look, can we please change the subject. I, for one, would just like to move on and forget it ever happened," he said as he reached for his wine glass and took a healthy swig of it, hoping it would erase the memory of Rory's shocked face that morning when she'd seen him lying on top of her mother.

"I'll drink to that," Rory said as she raised her own glass and clinked it against Luke's.

"So, why don't you tell me what Taylor did that had you so riled up today," Lorelai said to Luke.

"I wasn't _that _riled up," Luke said defensively.

"Luke, you looked like you were having an aneurism," she argued with him. "And I seriously thought you were gonna throw something at Taylor."

"Luke had a fight with Taylor and I missed it?"Rory said.

"Yeah, it was crazy. He even booted Taylor out of the diner."

"Wow,"

"Well, he pissed me off," Luke said. "He's holding our wedding permits hostage until I agree to renegotiate the lease on the soda shop."

"What? How can he do that?" Lorelai asked in surprise. "I thought he already signed off on the permits."

"He did, but he reminded me very bluntly that since he knows all the stupid town ordinances, he could have the revoked for any one of a thousand different tiny violations. I should've known something was up when he gave in that easily when I first applied for the permits we needed to have our wedding in the square."

"Stupid Taylor," Lorelai grumbled.

"Not only that, but he's insisting that we sit down and do this renegotiation thing in the presence of the lawyer who over saw our original contract negotiation."

"But isn't that Nicole?" Rory asked.

"Yeah," he said.

"That kind of makes sense, Luke, since she'd know all the ins and outs of your past agreement with Taylor."

"Yeah, except that that's not why Taylor's insisting on Nicole being there. He knows that she and I haven't talked since our divorce and that she was always jealous of my friendship with you. Now, that we're engaged, he knows that this meeting is going to be a parade of awkwardness and he wants a front row seat for that!"

"Well, that explains why she's been calling," she said and sat silently lost in thought for a moment as she reflected on their earlier conversation regarding Nicole."Maybe you should do it."

"Are you kidding? You're seriously suggesting that I have a meeting with my ex-wife right when we're about to get married?"

"It might be good for you to work out any residual feelings you may have towards Nicole before our wedding day."

"I don't have any residual feelings towards Nicole. I told you that earlier."

"Well, I don't know. Do it for the sake of having some closure then."

"I got all the closure I needed the day I signed the final divorce papers," he said brusquely. "Why are you encouraging this? The idea of me having a meeting with my ex-wife doesn't bother you?"

"Well, sure, it bothers me a little, but I also don't want you starting our marriage off with any doubts whatsoever. Aside from the fact that if Taylor makes good on his threat, it's going to be hard for us to find a new location for our wedding with less than five weeks to go before the big day."

"Fine," he reluctantly agreed. "I'll call him right now and tell him to set it up, but I'm gonna make it clear that I'm doing this under protest. I hate letting him win." He left the room in a huff to call Taylor and have him call Nicole.

"So, where's Paul Anka," Lorelai asked Rory. "I haven't seen him since I got home."

"Last time I saw the little chicken, he was skittering under the couch, after I decided to add snow peas to the salad," Rory answered.

"That makes sense. He's afraid of peas."

"Your dog is afraid of pea?" Richard asked in amusement.

"Among other things," Lorelai said as Luke returned to the kitchen. "Well, that must have gone well," she said. "I didn't hear any shouting."

'Yeah, Well, Taylor's a lot easier to get along with when he's getting his way," Luke groused. "Dinner will be ready in a few minutes. Do you mind setting the table while I check on the food?"

"You got it," she said as she left her seat and reached in the cabinet for plates, while Luke opened the oven to check on the bread and the lasagna he'd been preparing.

"Use the ones on the top shelf," he said to her. "They actually match."

"Since when do we have matching plates?" she asked in confusion.

"Since I took them out of storage today on my way to the grocery store. I cleaned them up when I got home. I figured since this was our first dinner with me cooking for your parents, we might as well make it a little nicer. In case you didn't notice, I also got the leaf for the table and the extra chairs out of the garage, since there are five of us for dinner tonight."

"I thought the table looked different," Lorelai commented as she reached for the plated he'd indicated."These are really pretty. Where'd they come from?" She asked as she began setting the table.

"They were part of my mother's wedding china; I thought they'd make a nice addition to our kitchen for special dinners."

"I love them," she said deeply moved, knowing how much it meant to him to have something of his family's in their home.

"Do you really love them or do you love them the same way you loved my grandmother's bedroom furniture?" he teased.

"No, I really love them," She said.

"Good," he said smiling amazed that it took so little to make him smile these days, knowing how grumpy he used to be all the time. Sometimes all it took was Lorelai walking into the room to make him smile.

"Salad's ready," Rory said.

"So, is everything else," Luke said as he removed the bread and the pasta from the oven and began serving it. Dinner passed without another flare-up of temper from any of them, they just chatted lightly about the upcoming wedding and Luke filled them in on all the details of his trip to Philadelphia and Lorelai told them about her plans for April's birthday party the next weekend, inviting them both to come if they wanted to. Richard and Luke set up a date and time for Luke to join Richard at the driving range and live up to his end of their bargain. Luke and Lorelai told her parents that they'd decided to accept their offer to buy them a house, much to the Gilmores' elation, but they made it clear that Luke had meant what he said about having no interference from them on how they lived their lives in their home. Taylor called Luke back while they were eating dessert and informed him that he'd set up a lunch meeting with Nicole for the next day at the diner.

"That soon?" Luke said.

"Well, the sooner the better," Taylor replied. "Especially since your wedding is only a few weeks away. I thought you'd want to have this settled so you have the security of knowing you won't have to find another location for the ceremony and reception."

Luke wanted to just tell Taylor off for using their wedding plans as a bargaining chip in an attempt to get a reduction in his rent. "Fine," he growled, holding back everything he wanted to say. "I'll see you tomorrow." He rejoined his family at the dinner table, muttering curse words under his breath

"Everything ok, Babe?" Lorelai asked.

"Tomorrow at One O'clock, the parade of awkwardness begins."

"What's prompting him to want to renegotiate his lease all of a sudden, anyway?"

"He's mad because I raised his rent on his newest lease renewal at the beginning of this month."

"You raised his rent?" Richard asked.

"I kind of had to. He had a motion passed at the last town meeting to raise the property taxes on all local business owners. I had to raise his rent to compensate."

"It's true," Lorelai confirmed. "The taxes on the inn went up too."

"The thing is, he's had that new lease in his hands for almost a month and still hasn't signed it. He knows that after tomorrow I've got the right to boot him out of my building since it will have been thirty days since I gave him the new lease. That's why he's pushing so hard to get this done. I could kill him for resorting to blackmail to get me to agree to it." He was still pissed about the situation, but he didn't see much way around doing things Taylor's way if he and Lorelai wanted to have their wedding in the town square.

"This is an amazing dessert," Emily said, changing the subject to distract Luke from his anger. "What did you say it was called again?"

"French Silk Pie," he replied.

"And it's homemade?"

"Yeah," Luke said. "I made this morning since it's a refrigerator pie and needs time to chill in order for it to set up properly."

"Well, I for one, think the entire meal was delicious," Richard said. "That bread you served with dinner was like nothing I've ever tried before."

"Thanks, Richard. That was homemade too. It's called Herbed Oatmeal Pan Bread. It's from a recipe I found once in one of my mom's old cookbooks, but I modified it some to give more of an Italian flavor.

"I never knew you were such a good cook," Emily said, deeply impressed with the dinner he'd taken so much time to prepare for them.

"Mom, why are you acting so shocked that Luke can cook? He's owned a restaurant for years."

"I know that, Lorelai, but burgers and fries are completely different from a meal of this caliber. Anyone can drop frozen potatoes into a deep fryer. Teenagers at _McDonald's _do it on a daily basis."

"She's got a point, Mom," Rory agreed. "And it's not like Grandma's been around to experience Luke's cooking like we have."

"We'll definitely have to do it again sometime," Richard said. "That is if you don't mind cooking for us again."

"Not at all," he said, relieved that there had been no judgmental comments on his cooking skills when they were used to having a professional chef cooking for them on a regular basis.

The evening ended on a lighter note than it had begun. After they'd all talked during dinner and continued with making plans for the future, everyone had relaxed a little more. Emily and Richard said their goodbyes, with Emily promising to call Lorene, the real estate agent she'd been dealing with and set up an appointment to look at houses when all of them could be tougher as Luke and Lorelai had made it clear that they wanted the girls involved in the decision-making process when it came to their future home. Rory then said goodbye herself and headed back to her apartment in New Haven, leaving Luke and Lorelai alone in the house again.

"So," Lorelai said. "That wasn't as bad as it could've been.

"No," He agreed. "It could've been a lot worse."

"So, do you want me to be there tomorrow for moral support? I will if you want me too."

"Are you sure you don't just want to be there to protect your turf?' he teased, remembering her fit of jealousy earlier in the day that had led to their frenzied encounter up against the door of his father's old office.

"Maybe a little," she admitted. "I just want to make sure she knows you're taken."

"I don't think that's something you have to worry about. She _is _remarried, after all."

"That didn't stop her from sleeping with someone else when she was married to you," Lorelai reminded him.

"Well, it doesn't matter to me if she would try something. You're the only want I want to sleep with."

"Glad to hear it," she said and kissed him. "Let's put that to the test, shall we?" she said as she took his hand and pulled him up the stairs leading to their bedroom.


	37. Chapter 37

When Rory walked into her apartment in New Haven, she was immediately accosted by Paris who'd been waiting anxiously for her to get back.

"Where've you been?" she asked impatiently and continued before giving her a chance to answer, "And why haven't you been answering your cell phone? I've been trying to call you non-stop since last night."

"Paris, you knew where I was. Lane's wedding was this weekend, so I went home to Stars Hollow. And the reason I haven't been answering my phone is because I turned it off halfway through the reception after my dad gave this horrible drunken speech. I knew as soon as he sobered up, he'd start calling me non-stop and I wasn't ready to deal with him. What's going on? I've never seen you this panicked."

"You might wanna sit down. It's bad."

"Paris, just tell me what's going on?"

"It's Logan. I know you two broke up, but I also know you're still carrying a torch for him, so I thought you'd want to know that that ne'er-do-well ex-boyfriend of your just landed himself in some really deep trouble, and that was literally. Colin called and said something about his chute not opening properly or him not getting his chute open in time. I don't know for sure. I wasn't paying that much attention when he mentioned Logan, but I thought I should tell you anyway. When he called last night they said he was being air-lifted to some hospital in New York, but I can't remember which one."

"It's fine, Paris. Thanks for telling me. I'll give Colin a call and find out what's going on," Rory said sounding a lot calmer than she felt. Sure she'd broken up with Logan because he'd hurt her, but she didn't wish anything like this to happen to him. She silently prayed that it wasn't as bad a Paris was making it sound as she picked up the phone.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Richard and Emily sat in their usual evening position after returning from Stars Hollow, each with a book in their hands and a cocktail beside them. Richard was engrossed in his reading while Emily couldn't seem to concentrate. She finally gave up the pretense of trying to read and slammed her book down on the coffee table, startling Richard out of his book.

"Emily, you almost gave me a heart attack!" her husband said.

"I'm sorry," she said getting out of her seat and walking to the bar to freshen her drink."I just can't stop thinking about dinner tonight." She took a sip of her drink, hoping it would calm her nerves.

"I thought things went rather well, myself. You didn't?"

"The dinner itself was wonderful and that chocolate pie Luke served for dessert was delightful, but I'm worried about him and Lorelai. He was so angry tonight. He was holding it in, but it was very obvious. And what right does that horrible man have to try to destroy their wedding plans just to try to get a reduction in his rent? This is the worst possible timing ever. With the two of them expecting twins, they're going to need more money, not less. And him forcing Luke to have a meeting with his trampy ex-wife! What if she tries to split them up like Christopher's done? The sheer nerve of that man!"

"Ok, Emily. Take a breath and calm down," he said as he crossed the room and wrapped his arms around her to comfort her. "First of all, we've never met Nicole, so you don't know that she's trampy."

"Well, what else would you call a woman who cheats on her husband?"she said icily, looking up at him.

"I'm just saying that you don't know all of the circumstances surrounding their divorce."

"But I suppose you do."

"I know a few things. Luke shared some of it with me when we had our talk in Stars Hollow about his and Lorelai's future. Granted, he didn't share all of the details with me, but I know that Luke deeply regrets the fact that he's had one failed marriage already and that he's determined not to let that happen with Lorelai. The fact is, we sorely misjudged him when he and Lorelai first started dating. He's a good man with a good heart who fully intends to be there for Lorelai and his children."

"Speaking of which, you didn't seem at all surprised by the twin news tonight. Did you already know about it?"

"I did," he admitted.

Emily extricated herself from her husband's grasp looking at him in shock and said, "I don't believe this! Once again, something huge is going on in Lorelai's life and I'm the last one to know. I can't believe she told you before she told me and that you kept it from me!"

"She didn't _tell _me. I overheard them talking that night at dinner when I went to make peace with Luke after my inappropriate outburst at the dinner table. When I asked him about it, he confirmed it, but he asked me not to say anything because they hadn't told Rory and April yet. I'm sorry that I kept it from you, but I gave Luke my word!"

"That is unacceptable! I'm your wife! We're not supposed to have any secrets from each other! We're supposed to tell each other everything! I cannot believe that you kept a secret of this magnitude from me! "

"It wasn't my secret to tell! Believe me, Emily. I hate it that I knew before you, but I couldn't break my promise to Luke, not when everything is finally coming together for our family."

"I broke my promise to Lorelai when I told you that she was pregnant in the first place. I promised her I wouldn't say anything, but I told you anyway."

"And I told you that you shouldn't have, if you recall. You were dancing around the subject all night and I told you if it made you uncomfortable to break your promise to Lorelai that you needn't tell me and you did it anyway!"

"Because I couldn't keep something that important from you! I thought it was imperative that you know that you're going to be a grandfather again."

"I know that and I understand why you did it, but I need you to understand why I did what I did! In just a little over a month, Luke is going to be our son-in-law and I want him to know that I can respect his wishes when it comes to his family. I need for him to trust me! That's something you should learn to do with Lorelai."

"Can't you see that I'm trying? But I don't know how to be the kind of mother that she wants me to be! I wasn't taught to be friends with my daughter and share secrets with her! This is hard for me to deal with!"

"I can see that you're trying, Emily, and no one's asking you to suddenly have this best friend relationship with her, like what she has with Rory, but you need to start accepting her life for what it is, instead of being disappointed that it isn't what you expect it to be even if you don't agree with it."

"That's what Lorelai keeps telling me."

"Then maybe you should listen to her. I'm sorry that I didn't tell you about the news about the twins, but it really should have come from them, not me, and it's not like they purposely told me and not you. I only found out about it by accident." He reached out for her, hoping for forgiveness.

"I guess I overreacted," she said as she stepped into his embrace and rested her head against his chest. "I just can't stand the thought of Lorelai shutting me out of her life again, especially now that she's expecting. I want so much to be a real part of her life and to know our grandchildren from the start." She closed her eyes and let the tears she'd been holding back fall.

Richard lifted her head and looked into her eyes. "As long as you keep trying, you will be," he assured her as he wiped the tears from her face and kissed her gently.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Lorelai and Sookie were chatting animatedly in the kitchen of the inn the next morning and Lorelai was relating all of the events of the previous day to her best friend, while Sookie was prepping chickens for the lunch menu.

"So how do you feel about Luke having this meeting with his first wife?" Sookie asked her. "That's gotta be a little weird for you."

"It is, but I think it's just as weird for him too. He doesn't really want to do it, but he doesn't' want us to have to make all new wedding plans either this close to our wedding day," Lorelai explained.

"I just can't believe stinky Taylor's holding your wedding plans for ransom. I mean, Taylor's done some pretty low things before, but this is the lowest of the low. I just wanna punch him for you!"

"Jackson rubbing off on you?" Lorelai teased, remembering vividly Jackson slugging Christopher two nights ago.

"Very funny," Sookie said, rolling her eyes at her sarcastic friend.

"You're not still mad at Jackson for the thing with Christopher, are you?"

"No, I never really was mad. I was just stunned. Jackson's not usually a violent person. We actually made up that same night. The more I thought about it, the more I realized it was kinda hot that he was willing to defend our friends like that."

"Hot, huh?"

"Totally hot," Sookie said with a suggestive grin.

"So, you got a little something for yourself out of Christopher getting pummeled?"

"Twice," she said with a giggle.

"You little tramp," Lorelai said teasingly.

"Look who's talking. I heard about your little escapade with Luke on your lunch break yesterday and how he dragged you off to his den."

"It wasn't so little. In fact, _nothing _about Luke is little," she said with a wicked grin. "How'd you hear about that anyway?"

"Miss Patty. You know how things are around here. You can't keep anything a secret for long."

"Don't I know it," Lorelai said with a laugh. "Speaking of which, there's something I haven't told you yet and it's kinda big, so I want to tell you so we don't have another incident like before."

"I'm listening," Sookie said.

"Well, when Luke and I had our first doctor's appointment a few weeks ago, the doctor told us that we're having twins."

Sookie smiled and said,"Is that all? I've known about that almost as long as you have."

"What? How?"

"Lorelai, the whole town knows."

"Wait, how does the whole town know?"

"Dr. Gordon's nurse is Mrs. Cassini's niece. She told Mrs. Cassini, who told Babette, Then Babette told Miss Patty and Patty told Taylor and you know how those things go."

"So, why hasn't anyone said anything all this time?"

"Well, we all got the sense that you weren't telling people for a reason and that you'd announce it when you were ready. Is there a reason you weren't telling anyone?"

"We just wanted to tell the girls first, then after we did, Luke left for Philly and my mother still didn't know and I didn't think it would be right not to tell her before telling everyone in town. We just told her last night."

"How'd she take the news?"

"It's kinda hard to gauge. She seemed upset that we hadn't told her sooner, but she didn't really seem to have an opinion on the fact that I'm carrying two babies and not just one, At least not one that she's expressed yet. I suppose that I'll get her real opinion sooner or later."

"Yeah, your mother's not one to keep her opinion to herself for very long," Sookie and Emily had already had a couple of differences of opinion over the wedding plans, but Sookie had firmly held her ground and told Emily that everything she was doing was what Lorelai wanted. "So, back to the Nicole thing, are you gonna be there for the meeting?"

"I'll be there at the diner when it's going on, but not actually _at_ the meeting. Luke asked me to be there in case things get out of hand."

"Is he planning on telling her about the two of you? I bet that would really piss her off, considering how jealous she was of you when they were together." Sookie smiled imagining the look on Nicole's face if she found out that the woman she'd been so jealous of was about to marry the man she'd thrown away.

"We discussed that last night and decided to wait and see what happens. Although, the way this town talks, she might know about everything from the moment she steps foot in Stars Hollow."

"True, but it would be so much better if it came from you, since she always hated you. Trampy, skinny, little bitch," Sookie said as she violently stabbed her knife into the chicken in front of her.

"Easy, there, Sook. I think that chicken's already dead." She reached for her friend's hand, knowing how she could get with knives when she was upset.

"Sorry, I'm just so mad about this whole Taylor blackmail thing. I mean, what is he thinking? He knows you and Luke are getting married and he's just trying to stir up trouble. God, I would love to be there for that meeting just to see Nicole's reaction when she finds out about the two of you. You have to swear to tell me everything, including how many shades of green she turns," Sookie said with a giggle.

"I'll give you a play by play as soon as it's over," Lorelai promised.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Rory walked into down the hall of the hospital toward Logan's room and found Colin and Finn sitting outside it.

"How is he?" she asked them. "Is he okay?"

"Scuttlebutt is, he's not dead," Finn said nonchalantly.

"The man is indestructible," Colin added.

"Dives headfirst off the cliffs of Caldera, instantly spins out of control," Finn continued.

"Gets totally disoriented, barely gets his chute open."

"Bounces off every rock and crag in the park-"

"Yet still manages to stick the landing."

"We gave him a 9.7."

"Had to deduct three-tenths for all the screaming and bleeding."

"What about his family?" Rory asked getting impatient with them being so casual about their friend's accident. "Did you talk to them?"

"Honor is on her honeymoon in Mykonos trying to get a flight back, and Logan's mom checked herself into some sort of spa in Arizona the moment she heard," Colin answered.

"When the going gets tough, the tough get hot rock massages," Finn added sarcastically.

"What about Mitchum?" Rory asked.

"The Dark Lord? We left word but haven't heard anything back."

"But we've come up with a plan to get around the whole family-only-gets-information thing. We're adopting him," Collin added a little too cheerily for Rory's taste given the situation.

"What?" She was stunned that his supposed friends weren't more concerned about Logan's health.

"We're going to make a fine son," Finn joked.

"Of course, first we must be married," Colin said continuing the farce.

"Naturally, darling, I'm very old-fashioned."

"And even then, adopting as a gay couple is never easy."

"We just want to give love."

"Oh, Finn."

"Oh, Buttercup!" Colin answered as they joined hands dramatically.

Rory had had enough of their theatrics when for all they knew, Logan could be dying. "What the hell is wrong with you two? Your best friend is lying unconscious in a hospital, and you don't even care!"

"Rory," Finn said, not understanding what her problem was.

"Why the hell aren't you two lying unconscious in there, huh?"

"Come on," Colin said quietly.

"You don't care! Because if you did, you wouldn't be like this! You couldn't! You're supposed to have his back; you're supposed to watch out for each other on these stupid trips of yours! But no, everything's a big joke, everything's hilarious! You're useless! Just go home! Both of you go home! I can't stand to look at you!" She marched into the hospital room and was stunned to see Logan, bruised and unconscious. A doctor followed her in to check his vitals. "Hi," she said.

"Hello," the doctor replied.

"I'm Rory Gilmore, I'm his girlfriend….ex-girlfriend," she corrected.

"I'm Dr. Schultz."

"How is he? Is he going to be okay?"

"I'm sorry, but I really can't get into the specifics,"

"Well, he's out of the ICU, so that's good, right? They wouldn't have moved him up here unless he was recovering."

"Sorry, really," he said. He could tell that she was distraught which seemed strange for an ex-girlfriend, but he really couldn't divulge an information without the consent of the family.

"But he's had surgery, right? Does he need more surgery? Does he have broken bones? Because I can donate blood if you want!"

"Miss…" he began to try to calm her down, but she interrupted him.

"You really - you can't tell me anything about what he has or what you've done, or what's wrong? Anything?"

"I'm sorry. It's hospital policy. We're doing everything we can," he said quietly and left the room, leaving Rory staring helplessly at the mess that was her former lover.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Nicole parked her car and walked hesitantly to _Luke's _what she'd find when she got there, especially after the way her ex-husband had hung up on her the day before when she'd mentioned Lorelai. It was clear that he was still insanely protective of her, like he'd been when they were together. She wasn't at all surprised when she walked into the diner to find Lorelai perched on her normal stool at the end of the counter. Luke, however was nowhere in sight. _Just get it over with,_ she told herself as she walked toward her and tentatively said, "Hello, Lorelai,"

"Hi, Nicole," Lorelai replied coolly.

"Um…Is Luke around? I'm supposed to meet with him and Taylor today."

"Yeah, he's upstairs getting change from the safe for the cash register," Lorelai answered as she took a sip from her coffee cup, making a big production of showing off her engagement ring.

"Wow," Nicole said. "Nice ring. You're engaged?"

"Yeah," she said with a smile. "Getting married June 3rd"

"Congratulations," Nicole said awkwardly wondering if it was Luke she was engaged to, but not daring to ask. She knew Luke had been right yesterday. They were divorced now and it wasn't really her business.

"Thanks. Luke should be down in a minute," Lorelai said as she took a quick glance toward the curtain to make sure he wasn't there and slipped behind the counter, reaching for the regular coffee pot. She was stopped by a gruff voice.

"Lorelai!" Luke shouted. "Get the hell away from that coffee pot!"

"Come on, Luke," she pleaded. "Just one cup."

"No. Now give me that," he said firmly as he walked to her, setting the change bag on the back counter and wrenching the coffee pot from her grip. "Now, get your ass out from behind my counter!"

"Lu-uke," she whined.

"No," he said again as he turned her around, walked her around where Nicole was standing at the end of the counter and guided her back to her seat. "I've told you over and over again no coffee while you're pregnant. You can have decaf." He went back behind the counter and began to put the change he'd gathered into the cash drawer.

"You're mean," Lorelai pouted. "I don't think I can be friends with you anymore."

"I'll live," he said dryly.

"You're pregnant?" Nicole asked Lorelai.

"Yeah, with twins," she said with a smile. Luke continued to ignore his ex-wife's presence as he finished putting the change away and reached for the decaf pot behind him and refilled Lorelai's coffee cup. "Wow, look at your neck," she said indicating her handiwork from the night before. "Did you get in a fight with the toaster again?" she teased, making sure Nicole knew it was there.

"Very funny," he said as he pulled at the collar of his flannel trying to cover up the mark there as he returned the pot to its burner.

"Well, It looks like someone got lucky last night," Nicole said sardonically.

Luke turned to face Nicole for the first time. "Yeah, it's this nutty woman I live with. She heard I was going to be meeting with you today and decided she had to mark her territory." Lorelai giggled at this. "She's crazy jealous," he finished with a pointed look aimed at Lorelai who only smiled lightly.

"You're living with someone?" Nicole asked in surprise.

"Yeah, I am," he answered abruptly.

"Are you living with her the same way you lived with me, coming home only when it's convenient for you, or only when Lorelai here doesn't have some life or death crisis that she needs to be rescued from."

"No, I go home to her every night. It makes a big difference having a woman in my life who gives me more to come home to than screaming matches and false accusations." When Nicole simply stared in response he kept going, unable to resist rubbing her nose in the fact that he was happy with someone else. "That's another reason I wasn't getting your messages. I don't live upstairs anymore. It was high time I stopped living like a crazy hermit and settled down for good."

"Well, pardon me if I don't see that lasting very long. You never seemed to be good with the whole long-term commitment thing."

"Look, Nicole, Taylor's not here yet since you're a little early. Why don't you go sit down somewhere and I'll join you when he gets here."

"Fine," she said and sat at the empty table behind Lorelai with her back to the counter.

"You were a little hard on her, don't you think," Lorelai said quietly.

"Hey, this was your idea. I didn't want to do this in the first place. Besides, she started it."

"What are you, five?"

"Yeah, roll me out a kindergarten mat. I'm not in the mood to be mature about this whole thing when I'm being forced to give in to Taylor's blackmail," He grumbled as he picked up the coffee pot he'd taken from Lorelai and walked to the table Nicole had just seated herself at. "Coffee?"he asked indicating the empty cup on the table.

"Yeah, thanks," Nicole said. He filled her cup and started to walk away. "Luke, wait," she said.

He turned and said, "What?" He glared at her waiting for her response.

"It doesn't have to be like this, all awkward and uncomfortable. I got here early on purpose hoping that we could talk a little."

"What on earth would we have to talk about? We haven't so much as uttered two words to each other in two years."

"I don't know. I just thought maybe we'd catch up, you know. 'How you been, 'what's going on in your life' that kind of thing."

"Well, I'm not interested I catching up. In fact, I don't even want you here. I've moved on, Nicole and I know you have too. I've actually started to build a pretty good life here since you're been gone and the only reason I'm allowing this is because Taylor's giving me no choice."

"I'm not exactly being given a choice in the matter either. The partners at my law firm made it very clear to me that Taylor is one of their more important clients and whatever he wants he gets and he specifically requested me for this job."

"I'm aware of that. I'm also aware of why Taylor's doing this. He knows exactly how much my life has changed in the last two years and he knows that it's making my life difficult having you here."

"Look, you don't have to worry about me making your life difficult with this new relationship you're in. I'm happily married, contrary to your assumption yesterday on the phone that my new marriage was falling apart."

"I'm happy for you," he said in a sarcastic tone.

"That was heartfelt," Nicole countered just as sarcastically.

"What the hell do you want from me, Nicole? It's been two years and we didn't exactly part on the best of terms if you recall! Do you think I want to just sit down and reminisce and laugh about all the good times we used to have while we swap stories about our new lovers? Not gonna' happen."

"So, you're not even a little curious about what I've been doing?"

"Nope. I know that you married the guy you cheated on me with and that you're obviously still working for the same law firm. What else do I need to know?" He again turned back toward the counter, but Nicole's voice stopped him in his tracks.

"How about the fact that I've got a little girl now," she said. He turned back to her. Lorelai turned to look at her after hearing this too; praying that she wasn't going to find out that Luke had another child he'd never known about.

"A little girl?"He swallowed hard, trying to keep his cool as an icy wave of fear gripped him.

"Yeah," Nicole said with a smile.

"How old? I mean… She's not…uh… is she…" He couldn't form the words.

"Breathe, Luke. She's not yours. She'll be a year old at the end of this month and even if you add nine months, there's no way. It's been more than two years since you and I…" she trailed off unable to finish the sentence.

"I remember," he said breathing a sigh of relief. Lorelai did as well and turned back to her lunch.

"Do you honestly think that I wouldn't have told you something like that right away if that were the case?"

"I don't know. It's not like when our marriage ended we were able to just shake hands and say 'sorry, it didn't work out. Have a nice life"."He said.

"For what it's worth, Luke, I'm sorry. I never told you that at the time, but I really am sorry for the way things ended. You were right. We should have ended it after that nutty cruise and not put each other through all of that."

"You're not the only one to blame, Nicole," Luke said a little calmer. "I admit I was a rotten husband to you. I never fully committed to building a life with you; I guess it's understandable that you found someone else who would. It hurt at the time, but I get it now." He finally made it back to the counter and put the coffee pot away, then returned to the table and sat opposite his ex-wife. "We both made it through that and are happier now. I mean, at least you seem happy."

"I am," she said with a smile. "Scott makes me happy."

"So, that's the sock guy's name? I remembered reading it in the paper when I saw your wedding announcement, but I was kinda mad at the time, so it only half-registered."

"I get that. So, you…You're happy too?"

"Yeah," he said with a glance at Lorelai's back, "I am. I never thought I would be going home every night to the same place to have someone waiting for me, but it's nice and Lorelai, don't you even think about going behind that counter again!" he said as he noticed her creeping out of her seat.

"Luke, that is _so _not fair. I let you go anywhere you want at the inn."

"I'm an investor in the Dragonfly, plus I'm always fixing stuff up around the place for you. I don't see you doing that around here."

"Hey, I painted once."

"Five years ago,"

"And I helped you out around here after your uncle died," she reminded him.

"Four years ago," he said. "What have you done lately?"

"I helped you move your stuff out of the apartment."

"That was not for the diner. That was for personal reasons."

"But it should still count. It's part of the building."

"Hey, if I thought you'd actually listen to me and stay off the coffee, I wouldn't care about you being behind the counter."

"You're being a big Nazi about this whole coffee thing," she complained.

"If you weren't such a junkie, I wouldn't have to be," he countered.

"Well, I can see some things never change around here," Nicole said as she watched their banter.

"The verbal sparring matches have always been kind of our thing," Lorelai said. "Just for the record, Luke, I wasn't going for the coffee. I was going to the bathroom. The kids are making me have to pee more often," she explained as she headed off to the bathroom.

Nicole watched her go and looked back at Luke. "So, how does the woman you're living with feel about that?" she asked indicating Lorelai.

Luke hesitated, not sure he should tell Nicole that Lorelai was the woman he with. Before he could decide, they were joined by Taylor, his arms laden with paperwork."Good, you're both here," Taylor said as he slid into a seat between them and piled all of his papers on the table. "Let's get started."

"Yeah, let's get this freak show over with," Luke groused, still angry at Taylor for his extortion tactics. He looked at all the documents Taylor had compiled and said, "Taylor, what the hell is all this?"

"This is all the record of all of our past dealings regarding the building next door, including all of my rent receipts, proof positive that I've been a good tenant and always paid my rent on time."

"That's not in dispute, Taylor. I know you always pay your rent on time. If you didn't, I'd have booted your ass out a long time ago."

"Come now, Lucas, there's no need for that kind of language. This is just supposed to be a friendly little business meeting."

"Friendly?" Luke said in disbelief. "How can it be friendly when you resorted to blackmail to get me to agree to it?"

"Blackmail?"Nicole questioned.

"It's hardly blackmail, Luke. You want something from me, I want something from you. We're just negotiating so that we both get what we want," Taylor said as Lorelai returned from the bathroom. "Oh, hello, Lorelai," he said far too cheerily for Luke's taste.

"Hi, Taylor," Lorelai said resentfully as she folded her arms across her chest and glared at Taylor. She was none too pleased with the fact that Taylor was using her dream of a perfect wedding day with Luke as a bargaining chip.

"I didn't know Lorelai was here, Did you know Lorelai was here?" he asked Luke.

"Of course I knew she was here, Taylor," Luke replied angrily as he too crossed his arms in frustration.

"Will you be joining us for this meeting, Lorelai?"

"No," she answered sullenly. "Why would I be joining you? This is your deal. I'm just here for the food. Gotta keep the little ones fed," she said as she returned to her seat at the counter, turning her back on Taylor.

"I just thought since this affects you too, you might want to be involved."

"How would this affect Lorelai?" Nicole questioned Taylor.

"Because she's-"Luke cut him off before he could finish his thought.

"Look, Taylor," Luke said getting hostile."Can we just get this over with, so I can get back to running my business?"

Taylor looked from Lorelai to Luke to Nicole and it was clear to him that Nicole had no idea about the relationship between her ex and the woman sitting at the counter. "Fine," he said. "Now, as I said before, I've always been a good tenant…"

"Except for that time you punched a big hole in my wall to put in that stupid window without my permission! I should've sued you for that!"

Taylor went on, ignoring Luke's outburst, "…and as a good tenant I'm shocked by this sudden rent increase just because my lease is up."

"Taylor, you know damn well, that I didn't raise your rent just because your lease is up! I raised your rent because you raised my property taxes which made my insurance go up! My cost of maintaining the building has increased, therefore I had to increase your rent to compensate! It's just basic economics like they teach in ninth grade!"

"Luke has a point, Taylor. If it's costing him more for the upkeep on the building, he has every right to up the rent."

"I thought you were supposed to be _my _lawyer. Why are you taking his side?"

"I'm not, Taylor, but this is supposed to be a negotiation. Luke's not on trial for murder here. This is just a business deal. Surely some kind of compromise can be reached that you can both live with. Now, if what Luke says is true and his costs have increased by a significant amount, then we need to llok at the difference in cost and work from there."

"I would have no problem with the rent increase, if I thought that the tax increase was the only reason behind it," Taylor said with a smug look directed at Luke.

"What are you talking about, Taylor? Why the hell else would I be raising your rent?"

"Well, I know for a fact that you've got other expenses to worry about now," he gestured with his head toward Lorelai. "And I don't think it's fair that I'm being penalized because you're not responsible enough to take…certain precautions in your personal life."

Luke rose from his chair, towering menacingly over Taylor. "You're insane! I mean, if you think that that has anything to do with your rent increase, you're completely cracked!"

"I'm just saying that all this new responsibility you're taking on has got to be a little overwhelming for you, worrying about your financial situation, what with April and your…new obligations…"

"What the hell is he talking about?" Nicole asked. "What new obligations?" Lorelai slid from her stool to join her fiancée knowing that she may need to calm him down before things got too crazy.

"He's talking about Lorelai!" Luke shouted. "You wanna know what's been going on in my life, well, here it is! The twins Lorelai's carrying are mine!" He reached for Lorelai's left hand. "This diamond ring on her finger! I put it there! We're getting married in a little over a month! And, oh, yeah, I've got a thirteen year old daughter I never knew about until six months ago! That's why I freaked a little when you said you had a daughter too!" He turned back to Taylor, leaving Nicole looking floored, and said, "There, are you happy now? It's all out. That's what you really wanted, isn't it? To see me squirm knowing that I'm with Lorelai now and that Nicole didn't know about it! Now you can stop threatening to revoke the permits we need for our wedding!"

Lorelai gripped Luke's hand tightly. "Baby, calm down. It's ok. We'll get it worked out, she said soothingly. "Just sit back down and we'll all discuss this rationally. Like adults," she added with a pointed glance toward Taylor.

"I don't wanna calm down," Luke said hotly. "He did this on purpose just for the sheer entertainment value. He knows how much we want to get married in the town square and he knows this meeting would be awkward and stupid and how hard it was going to be for me to deal with this when you and I are trying to build a life together."

"I know, Hon," Lorelai said. "I know, but it's all out now. All we can do is move on and try to get this worked out."

"I guess you're right," he said reluctantly as he took his seat again, glaring at Taylor.

"Maybe it'd be better if I weren't here," she said with a glance at Nicole.

"No, Lorelai, You don't have to leave. Taylor's right. This affects you too."

"I was just here to try to keep you calm. You're a little calmer now, so my work is done. Besides, I should be getting back to the inn. You know how Sookie and Michel get. If I'm not there to act as a buffer, they might kill each other."

Luke laughed and said, "You're probably right there. I'll fill you in on the rest of the meeting when I get home tonight."

"I'll look forward to it," she said. She kissed him lightly while Nicole looked away and left the diner.

"So," Nicole said. "Let's get this new lease taken care of." She was a little thrown by the turn of events, but she couldn't say that she was really surprised that her ex-husband had finally made his move with Lorelai. The rest of the meeting went on without another outburst from any of them. Luke and Taylor managed to come to an agreement on the rent that was a little lower than Luke's original increase, but still enough to offset his increasing costs. After the paperwork was agreed upon and signed by both parties and Taylor had left to return to the market, Nicole gathered up her things and started to leave, but was stopped by Luke's voice.

"For what it's worth, Nicole, I'm sorry too," he said in reference to their failed marriage.

"Thanks," she said quietly, then asked. "You're happy with Lorelai?"

"I really am," he replied. "I never really saw myself as a family man. I remember when your parents were grilling me about the subject and it kinda freaked me out at the time, but with Lorelai, it feels right."

"I'm glad you're happy."

"I'm glad you're happy too," he said as she turned and left the diner.


	38. Chapter 38

Emily drained the last sip of her wine from its glass as her DAR meeting was breaking up and the ladies were dispersing, chatting lightly about the plans they were making for their latest function. As she was about to gather up her things, she spotted Francine Hayden on the other side of the room picking up her purse and making her way toward the door. Emily made a beeline across the room and stopped her before she could get away.

"Francine, might I have a word with you in private?" she said not giving her a chance to answer before grabbing her by the arm and escorting her to her office. She closed the door behind them.

"Emily, what is the meaning of this? I have to get home. Christopher's bringing my granddaughter for a visit."

"This won't take long. It's interesting that you mention Christopher and your granddaughter, because that's exactly what I want to talk to you about, and I don't mean the same granddaughter you're talking about. I'm talking about Rory; the granddaughter that you've pretended doesn't exist for the last twenty-one years."

"Emily, this is hardly the time and place for this," Francine protested.

"Well, we're making it the time and place," Emily said. "After all, when else are we going to have the opportunity to talk about this? We don't exactly run in the same circles anymore. In fact, I can't remember the last time I saw you at one of these meetings."

"What is it you want, Emily?"

"What I want is for you to tell your immature, spineless son to stay the hell out of Stars Hollow and away from my daughter!"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Francine said defensively.

"I don't believe that, Francine. I don't believe for one second that your darling little boy hasn't come running to Mommy whining about how he got his poor little feelings hurt because Lorelai finally had the good sense to find a man who's an actual adult."

"Good sense?" Francine scoffed. "I heard she had the 'good sense' to get herself in trouble again out of wedlock."

"'In trouble'?" Emily questioned. "What is this, the 1950's?"

"So, you're not denying it? That your whore of a daughter is unmarried and pregnant again?"

"How dare you!" Emily was livid. "What right do you have to judge her when your son runs around with his fly open creating children he has no intention of providing for?"

"I saw that man your daughter's with last year when Richard had the audacity to parade him around the club ad if he belonged there. He's nothing more than a big scruffy lumberjack! Do you honestly think that's the kind of man who can provide for your future grandchild?"

"As a matter of fact, I do. He owns his own business and he's made some solid investments, including in Lorelai's inn. I have no doubt that he'll be good husband and father. Richard and I support this marriage one hundred per cent!"

"Be honest, Emily. We both know that the only reason you're supporting this ludicrous pairing is because he got her pregnant! I know all about your views on the subject from you trying to force my son into marrying your daughter and throwing his life away when he was only sixteen!"

"That's not why I'm supporting her upcoming marriage. While it's true that I believe that when you get pregnant you should get married, I'm supporting this because I want to see my daughter happy and she _is _happy. I've seen her and Luke together and how well he treats her. How he takes care of her and Rory, more than Christopher ever has. If your idiot son had his way, all of that would be destroyed and I'm not going to let _anyone _destroy my daughter's happiness."

"Do you honestly think that he's a proper step-father for Rory?"

"Since when do you care about Rory? You've barely laid eyes on her since she was a baby! Do you know that Christopher made a drunken scene at her best friend's wedding this past weekend, humiliating her and breaking her heart yet again?"

"I can't be held responsible for Christopher's actions!"

"But I do hold you responsible! You're the one who made Christopher the pathetic excuse for a man that he is today! You babied him and treated him like he could do no wrong no matter how much he screwed up his life and the lives around him. He's never been a real father to Rory and I blame you and Straub for that. The two of you were so blinded by your anger over Lorelai getting pregnant that you never once stopped to consider that the child she was carrying was your grandchild. If you'd made even the slightest effort to be involved in her life, maybe Christopher would have too. He's always tried to be a good little mama's boy, doing whatever you wanted him to do."

"Don't you think I wanted to know my granddaughter? Straub would never let me!"

"That's a copout and you know it! If you'd really wanted to be a part of Rory's life you would have, despite what your husband said. In fact, you might have been the one to change his mind about cutting himself off from her. You could've visited anytime you wanted to. Lorelai wouldn't have turned you away. She left the door open to Christopher Rory's whole life and she'd have done the same for you, but you chose to stay away and Christopher just followed your lead."

"Christopher was much too young to be a father!"

"Maybe he should have thought of that before getting my daughter pregnant! She was too young to be a mother too, in case you've forgotten, but she did it! She raised Rory all by herself with no help from anyone and look how she's turned out! She's a junior at Yale and editor of the _Yale Daily News. _She's a bright accomplished young woman with a good head on her shoulders and a big heart who loves people unconditionally. That's why she keeps giving her worthless father chance after chance even though he keeps breaking his promises to her time after time. She still loves him even though he's done nothing but disappoint her!"

"What is it you want me to do about it? I can't change who Christopher is!"

"Yes, you can! In fact, you're the only one who can. If you give him the slightest encouragement, he'll stop this asinine behavior of his and be there for his daughter and leave Lorelai alone! I've waited too many years to see my daughter happily married to let your spoiled brat of a son get in the way of that. While Luke is not the man I would've chosen for my daughter to marry, he loves her and makes her happy and they _are _going to be married. I'll make damn sure of that!" Emily turned and left the room, leaving Francine gaping behind her.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

"You should have seen Nicole's face," Lorelai was telling Rory on the phone. "Twelve shade of green. It was priceless."

Rory smiled a little, "I'm glad it all worked out. I know Luke was upset about having to deal with his ex."

"Speaking of exes, how's Logan doing? Have you managed to wheedle any info out of the doctors yet?"

"No," Rory said sadly.

"Come on, Kid. Where's that reporter's killer instinct of yours? Aren't you supposed to like Lois Lane, able to get anything out of anybody?" she teased, trying to cheer her up a little.

"And look how well that worked out for her? She always had to have Supermen coming around to rescue her when she stuck her nose in where it didn't belong."

"Yeah, but she always got her scoop."

Rory sighed. "Believe me, I've tried, but they still won't give away any details to anyone except family and 'ex-girlfriend' ranks pretty low on the list. The crazy thing is his family hasn't even shown up here to be told anything. His sister is busting her ass to cut her honeymoon short so she can be here, but his parents haven't even called here to see if he's even still alive."

"God, that sucks! How can you not be there for your kid? When you and Jess got in that car accident, I was a complete wreck and that was just a broken arm."

"Yeah, and I remember it led to a big screaming match between you and Luke where you guys didn't talk for weeks. That freaked me out a little; you and Luke had never fought like that."

"But look how far we've come now, Kid. We're getting married four weeks from Saturday and we're going house-hunting for a new place, which is Wednesday afternoon after April gets out of school, by the way, if you can make it…" Her mother had called her earlier letting her know that she'd set up the appointment with the realtor on a day when she knew Luke had a scheduled visit with April.

"I'll be there," Rory confirmed.

"…and we're starting a family of our own. Things are good between me and Luke. Better than they ever have been."

"I'm glad."

"So, have you heard from your dad since you yelled at him yesterday at the diner?"

"How'd you know I yelled at him?"

"Hello? I live in Stars Hollow and you did it right in front of the town's biggest gossips."

"I'm sorry, Mom," she said a little self-consciously.

"Hon, you have nothing to be sorry for. You were speaking your mind. I think it's great that you defended me and Luke, that you love us that much, but I just don't want you to miss out on having a real relationship with your dad. He may do stupid things, but he really does love you and he seemed like he was really trying to get to know you."

"Well, if he really wants to try, he needs to lay off of you and Luke and accept that you've outgrown him and that you and Luke are in love and happy."

"But his feelings about me and Luke have nothing to do with the way he feels about you and you shouldn't let it affect your relationship with him. You remember how hard I took it when he married Sherry. He's still trying to deal with the same kind of feelings. I'm not saying that his moronic actions are justified, just that maybe you should give your dad another chance."

"I think I'm all out of chances when it comes to him," she said just as she saw her father walking around the corner toward her, his arms laden with flowers and balloons and balancing a carryout cup of coffee in each hand. "Um…Mom, I've gotta go. I'll call you later when I know more."

"Hi," Christopher said struggling to hand her a cup of coffee while still balancing the rest of his load. "I thought you could use this. It's not Luke's but…" he trailed off.

"Thanks," she said as she took the cup from him and took a sip of the bitter liquid. "How did you know where I was?"

"Paris," he said. "When I couldn't get you on your cell, I tried your place and she said that you were here and that Logan had been in some kind of accident and that he was unconscious and nobody was giving you any information. I thought you might need some company while you wait and I know your mom's busy, so here I am. I know you probably don't want me here and if that's the case, I'll go away, but I just…I thought someone should be here for you in person."

"No, it's fine. Stay, but let's put some of this stuff away," She said as she walked back toward Logan's room, gesturing for her dad to follow her. They entered the room together and Rory took the flowers and balloons from him and arranged them around Logan's bed then turned back to her father. "It means a lot that you came."

"Yeah?"He said a little nervously.

"Yeah," she confirmed.

Christopher looked at Logan and said, "Boy, he really got banged up, didn't he?"

"Sheer stupidity on his part," she said as she held back the tears that were forming at seeing Logan in this state. "Let's go somewhere else, I can't stand looking at him like this right now," She left the room followed by her father. When they stepped into the hallway, Christopher placed a tentative hand on her shoulder. She turned and let him wrap her in a comforting embrace and let the tears fall, her body shaking uncontrollably with the force of her sobs. Chris just held her, patting her back and let her unload. When the tears let up a little, she pulled back from him and said, "I'm sorry for getting all blubbery on you. I just…I know I broke up with Logan, but I never wanted anything like this to happen to him. Even though we broke up…I…I…" she found that words failed her.

"You still love him," he said as he placed a hand on her back and guided her to a chair and sat beside her.

She nodded. "Stupid, huh? He cheated on me and broke my heart and I still love him."

"Loving someone is never stupid. Sometimes it makes us do stupid things, but the feeling itself isn't stupid."

"Dad…" Rory said warningly.

"Don't, Rory. Your mom's in love. I get it, ok? I've been stupid and idiotic and moronic and a whole bunch of other words for dumb jackass and I'm sorry. But I'm here now, not because of your mom. I'm here for you."

"I can't believe you drove all the way from Boston to get here. It's almost a four hour drive from Boston to New York."

"Actually, I only drove a little over two hours. I was in Hartford, taking Gigi to my mom's for a visit when I got the news. I didn't think. I just got in the car and drove. I figured you could maybe use someone to lean on or a shoulder to cry on, even if it was mine."

"I appreciate that, Dad."

"So, it's ok that I'm here?"

"Yeah, it's ok," she said leaning her weary head on her dad's shoulder.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Emily walked into the soda shop on a mission and spotted Kirk at a table in the front of the building. She walked up to him and demanded, "Where's Taylor Doose?"

Kirk gestured with his head to the table next to the window that looked into _Luke's _where Taylor was seated with Nicole, going over some paperwork. "Back there," He said. "But I wouldn't bother him. He's in a business meeting right now with his lawyer."

"That's his lawyer? The one Luke used to be married to?" Emily questioned, looking at the scrawny redhead who'd once been married to her future son-in-law. She couldn't imagine what he'd seen in her. She marched purposefully over to them, looked at Taylor and demanded, "Who the hell do you think you are?"

"I beg your pardon?" Taylor said looking affronted.

"Don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about. What kind of despicable man holds a couple's wedding plans hostage just for a reduction in his rent? And what right to have to use their dreams to force Luke into agreeing to meeting with his bimbo ex-wife?"

"Excuse me?" Nicole said. "Did you just call me-"

Emily cut her off,"No one was talking to you!"She snapped with an icy glare. She returned to her berating of Taylor. "What exactly were you thinking about when you did this? Do you take some kind of sick pleasure in making people uncomfortable? Do you know that you could have put Lorelai and her unborn children at risk by upsetting her over this?"

"So, this is about Lorelai," Nicole commented. "I should've known." She'd meant what she said earlier. She _was _happy that Luke was happy, but it still bothered her that it was with Lorelai. She couldn't help but wonder if Lorelai was the reason he'd stopped coming home to her when they were together. She knew it didn't matter now, but she still wanted to know if he'd had something going with Lorelai while they were still married. She'd accused him of it many times when she'd been angry. She realized long before they were divorced that it was Lorelai he was in love with and not her. She'd seen the way he'd looked at her and the way they'd always flirted with each other, not to mention the fact that every story he told about life in Stars Hollow included Lorelai.

"No, this is about Lorelai _and _Luke. They're engaged to be married and they're expecting twins! They're going to be shopping for a new home for their family later this week and they're working very hard to blend two families into one, with her daughter and his and I'm not about to let a petty vindictive man and a trampy, skinny lawyer get in the way of that!"

"Hey!" a gruff voice yelled from the doorway causing all three of them to turn in that direction to see Luke standing there. "What the hell is going on over here?" he said closing the distance between them in a few long strides. He looked at his future mother-in-law. "Emily, what are you doing here?"

"You know this crazy woman?" Nicole asked.

"Yeah, I know her. She's my future mother-in-law."

"That explains a lot," Nicole said sarcastically.

"What are you even still doing here, Nicole? Our business is done."

"For you information, Lucas," Taylor began. "I have other legal issues that needed her attention. The world does not revolve around you, you know."

"Fine! Just conduct your business and let Nicole get back to her husband and child! I don't need any more drama on my property!"

"Need I remind you that I pay you good money to rent this space? _Too_ much money, if you ask me."

"We came to a mutual agreement on the terms of the new lease. I've got a brand-new contract with your signature on it proving that! If you wanna back out, that's fine with me! You can take you little frou-frou soda shop and get it the hell out of my building! Lord knows I could use the space to expand the diner as busy as I've been the past couple of months. I'm not playing with you anymore, Taylor!"

"Do I have to remind who holds the keys to your wedding plans with Lorelai?" Taylor said smugly.

"I've had it with you, Taylor! I'm done with your bureaucratic bullying. Lorelai and I are _going_ to be married in the town square where we've been planning and you will _not _interfere with that! If I have to, I'll take this to the town elders!"

"As if they'd give you the time of day without me to put in a good word for you," Taylor said haughtily.

"I don't know, Taylor. They seemed to like me when I talked to them about buying the Twickham house for me and Lorelai, especially the older ones who knew my father and my grandfather."

"He's got a point, Taylor," Kirk interjected. "I wanted the house too, but they chose Luke over me even though I've got way more money that he does."

"That's right," Luke agreed."You seem to forget that I've got roots in this town just like you do and I will not stand idly by while you flaunt your superiority and destroy mine and Lorelai's dreams for your own selfish gains! You've pushed me too far this time, Taylor. I oughtta' kick your ass outta here just for the aggravation!"

"That would be in direct violation of our new contract, which you also signed."

"So, sue me! You've got your lawyer right here! You might as well put her to work!" He'd had enough of Taylor's attitude. He couldn't believe after everything, he was still threatening his wedding plans. "Come on, Emily," he said grabbing her by the arm. "Let's take a walk. We need to have a talk!"

He led her outside where she wrenched her arm out of his grasp. "Let go of me! Just what the hell do you think you're doing, manhandling me like that?"

"What the hell were _you_ doing? I saw the scene you were making in there through that stupid window!"

"I was defending my family, something I thought you of all people would appreciate, since you're a part of it!"

"Part of your family?" he said with an ironic laugh. "Who the hell do you think you're fooling? You don't want me as part of your family! You've made it very clear how much you hate me from the moment I started dating Lorelai. You've done nothing but ridicule me and talk down to me at every opportunity! Do you honestly think that I'm so dense that I don't know the only reason you're suddenly being so supportive is because Lorelai's pregnant with my children?"

"Why does everyone think that? I don't hate you, Luke! To be perfectly honest, I don't even really know you!"

"Well, whose fault is that? Ever since Lorelai and I got together, I've done nothing but bow to your whims, keeping my mouth shut while you're run down my life, my business and my home town! I've spent more Friday nights at your house than I care to think about being humiliated and tormented by your snide comments and your backbiting and never said a word to defend myself out of respect for Lorelai because I know how important it is to her that the two of you have a decent relationship, in spite of how much you've hurt her over the years! You don't know how many Friday nights during the last five years she's walked into my diner in tears or near tears after one of your torturous dinners where you made her feel like she was worthless because she wasn't living up to your insanely high standards or how many time she's cried on my shoulder wondering why her mother can't just love her for who she is!"

"Lorelai thinks I don't love her?"Emily said in alarm, "How could she think that, when I only want what's best for her?"

"Which doesn't include me, right?"

"I didn't say that."

"No, but it's what you feel, isn't' it? I know you hate it that I'm the one Lorelai's choosing to marry and not Christopher. I know you hate it that I got her pregnant and that we live together. "

"No. I'm happy for you and Lorelai. I just want her to be happy and it's very obvious that she's in love with you and you with her. It's true that I would have preferred that the two of you had been married when your children were conceived, but I also know that you've were planning a wedding long before that happened so what can I really say about that except that I'm excited about being a grandmother again. If you'll let me, I'd like to have a chance to be a real part of your lives."

"Remember what I said about interfering. I agreed to letting you buy us a house, but that's where your control in our lives ends," Luke said warningly.

"I'm not talking about trying to control your lives. I just want to be involved. I want to be there on your wedding day. I want to know my grandchildren. I want my daughter to welcome me into your home. I want to be there on holidays and birthdays and any other special occasions. I don't want Lorelai shutting me out of her life again."

"I told you, you'd always be welcome in our home, wherever we end up living. You and Richard are the only grandparents my children are going to have. My mother's been dead for nearly thirty years and my dad's been dead for almost twenty," he said with a hint of sadness in his voice.

"It's still hard for you, isn't it?" she said seeing the pain on his face. "Losing your parents so young?" He nodded, unable to speak and swallowed hard, trying to shake off the new wave of grief that had just hit him. "You had to take on a lot of adult responsibility when you were still just a child yourself." She was beginning to understand a little more about Luke and the kind of life he'd lived.

"Something Lorelai and I have in common," he said quietly. "Ever since Lorelai told me she was pregnant, I've been thinking about my parents more and more. I wish so much that they could have lived long enough to meet her and to know our children. My mom would have adored her and I have no doubt that she would've whole-heartedly accepted Rory as a granddaughter with no questions asked. That's why I gave Rory her pearls for her twenty-first birthday."

"I didn't realize you'd done that." She was surprised. "I would've thought that you would save something like that for your own children.

"I wanted her to have it because my mother would have wanted her to have it. That pearl necklace has been handed down in my family for years. It's tradition to give it to the oldest granddaughter and while Rory is not my daughter biologically, she _is_ a daughter to me in my heart and that's what matters. My mother would have seen that and she wouldn't have cared that Rory wasn't related by blood. If she were still around, she'd have viewed Rory as her oldest granddaughter and given it to her herself."

"Your mother sounds like a wonderful woman," Emily said reflecting on her argument with Francine earlier and was awed by Luke's reverent tone when speaking of his deceased mother. She was amazed to think that his mother would have felt that way about Rory when her blood grandmother had never taken any interest in her.

"She was," he said. "I can't help but wonder sometimes what my parents would think of me and my life if they were still around."

"I'm sure they'd be quite proud of you and your accomplishments. From what I've observed, you've built quite the life here with your business and your community. That's something that any parent would be proud of."

"Thanks," he said feeling the weight of his sadness lift a little at her words. "So, does that mean you're not completely repulsed by the idea of me marrying your only daughter?"

"No, not completely," she said then added in typical Emily Gilmore fashion, "Although we do need to talk about your wardrobe and _please _tell me you're planning on shaving for your wedding day."

Luke laughed and shook his head amazed that Emily could go from saying something so touching one minute and jump right into criticism the next. He felt a little better knowing that she was at least trying to understand him. He and his future mother-in-law may never fully get along or see eye to eye on things, but this was a start.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Christopher sat silently while Rory was on the phone talking to Logan's sister who'd called her to let her know she was still trying to get there. She had just filled Honor in on all the details of Logan's injuries having gotten the information from her overprotective roommate who'd used her family connections to bully the doctors and nurses into to providing her with all pertinent info.

"I hate that you're cutting your honeymoon short," Rory was saying.

"It's okay," Honor said. "With Mom flaking out, I don't want to be here anymore. We've got seats on a flight going out tonight, but it's got a five-hour layover in Angora, so we're still trying to find something more direct. Either way, we should be there some time tomorrow night."

"Okay. So, have you heard anything more from your dad?"

"Yeah, I just talked to him."

"So, is he coming down here?"

"Nope," Honor said hostility in her voice.

"He's out of town too?" Rory asked, assuming that that would be the only logical explanation for him not being there when his son needed him.

"No, he's home. He's just not coming."

"What?"

"It's the whole Life and Death Brigade thing. He's very against it."

"But he was in the Life and Death Brigade," Rory protested.

"Yes, but he feels that he knew when to grow up and accept responsibility and that Logan doesn't. He wanted his precious boy done with that by now. So he's boycotting."

"Boycotting his injured son? Logan had emergency surgery!" Rory was getting more pissed off by the minute at the sheer nerve of the Huntzberger patriarch.

"Hypocrisy runs very deep in the Huntzberger family. Anyhow, forget it. I'm sure Logan isn't expecting him. Okay, so, I'll call later when I have more flight information."

"Okay. Bye," She disconnected the call and looked thoughtful for a moment.

"Is everything ok?" her father asked in concern.

"One second, Dad," she said as she opened her phone again and began dialing looking ready for a fight a look of pure fury on her face. When her call was answered, she let loose, "Mitchum Huntzberger? Yes. It's Rory Gilmore. I just thought I'd call and remind you that Logan is lying in a hospital bed with a partially collapsed lung and a whole host of other potentially life-threatening injuries and I'm figuring a guy like you, surrounded by nothing but a bunch of terrified sycophants might not have someone in his life with the guts to tell him what an incredibly selfish, narcissistic ass he's being. So I thought I'd jump on in." She took a breath then shouted at him, "Swallow your pride, get in your car and come down here and see your son! Now!" She hung up and flopped down into the chair she'd vacated when answering Honor's call.

"Wow, I hope I never make you that mad," Christopher said.

Rory glared at her father and said," What makes you think you haven't'? Do you have any idea how pissed at you I was after your drunken performance Saturday night? I thought you agreed to go to the wedding with me just to spend time with me, but instead you used it as yet another opportunity to get a few more digs in at Luke and mom's relationship!"

"I said I'm sorry and to be fair, I didn't know that he was going to be there, especially since you told me he was out of town."

"So, that makes it ok?"

"No, I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that I was thrown by it. And you didn't hear the things he said to me when you and your mom were getting ready. He kept throwing it in my face, in a not so subtle way that he's sleeping with your mom."

"Well, he _is _sleeping with Mom. She didn't get pregnant with twins by herself."

"I know that, but he didn't have to be so blunt about it."

"What did you really think was going to happen, Dad? Did you honestly think that if Luke hadn't been there, that Mom would've been so caught up in the romance of the wedding, that she'd fall back into your arms and forget all about Luke and the fact that she's carrying his children?"

"No…I don't know what I thought. I just wanted a chance to really talk to your mom one on one and clear the air and when I saw everybody going on and on about how they're the perfect couple and he's the perfect guy, I…I just got a little nuts."

"What did you think would happen if you had talked to her one on one? Did you think you'd be able to persuade her to run away with you and abandon Luke? Would you have been happy raising another man's children? And did you think if that happened that Luke would be the kind of man who'd just stand idly by and let you take his family away from him? In case you haven't noticed, he's fiercely determined to protect what's his and that includes Mom. She is his and so are the twins she's expecting."

"And you're his too, aren't you?" he said bitterly.

"Dad, don't."

"Why not? It's true, isn't it? You've made it very clear that he's your father in your heart and I'm nothing more to you than your mom's sperm donor and that I don't really have place in your other than writing the check to Yale ."

"I never said anything like that. You're more to me than just a sperm donor and you _do _have a place in my life, but you have to understand that your place in my life doesn't include Mom anymore. She has her own life with Luke and I'm happy for them. They love each other so much and they belong together and I plan to be there, standing right beside them on their wedding day when they commit to spending the rest of their lives together. I'm excited about their wedding and so is everyone in Stars Hollow."

"I noticed," he said recalling Lane's wedding and Miss Patty's exuberance and the cheers of the wedding guests when Rory introduced them as Stars Hollow's "power couple".

"Look, Dad," she said with a sigh. "I'm very grateful that you came to be with me today. That shows real progress and I want that to continue and I liked the idea you had about setting up a time for me to hang with you and Gigi together, but maybe we should restrict our visits to New Haven or Boston or even Hartford. Anywhere but Stars Hollow."

"So, I'm not allowed to visit my kid in her home town?"

"Not for a while. At least until you can learn to accept that everyone in Stars Hollow loves Mom and Luke and wants them to be happy together. Anytime that you come to Stars Hollow, you're going to have to deal with that because the residents there are not known for keeping their mouths shut. I know it makes you uncomfortable being bombarded by that, so until you can be on their turf without causing a scene or upsetting my pregnant mother, you should stay away from there. We can still hang out, but not there."

"I can accept that," he conceded. "So, how about we make a plan for this weekend?"

"That sounds nice, but I can't. Mom and Luke are throwing a belated birthday party for April this weekend and I promised I'd be there, but we can make a plan for another time."

"Ok," he said, disappointed, but understanding. "I'm going to be in Hartford for the rest of the week visiting my Mom and she mentioned to me today that she'd like to see you."

"What about your job? Don't you have to work?"

"No," he paused. "Actually, I've been meaning to tell you about that. I quit my job about a week ago."

"Why?"

"All this stuff with you has gotten me really thinking that if I don't change the way I'm doing things, I'm gonna miss out on stuff with Gigi just like I missed out on stuff with you. I should've been the one feeding you mashed potatoes when you had the chicken pox and comforting you the first time you got your heart broken and helping you celebrate your birthdays and helping you move into your dorm." Rory started to say something, but he continued before she could. "I know that it's _my _fault that I wasn't there and that you didn't ask Luke to do all those things for you. I'm the one to blame for that fact that you love him more than you do your own father."

"Is that what you think? That I love Luke more than I do you?"

"Don't you?"

"No. I won't deny that I love Luke like a father, but that doesn't mean that I don't love you too or that I love him _more _than you. The love I have for Luke is just…different. He knows me and understands me in a way that you never have. I love that you've been making a real effort to get to know me lately, but every time I start to think that you get it and I feel safe opening my heart to you again, you pull a stupid stunt like you did at the wedding and make it hard for me to trust you. I have never had to worry about trusting Luke with my heart."

"I get it," Chris said with a nod. "Did I mention the 'sorry' part?" he asked sheepishly.

"Yeah, once or twice," she said with a smile. "It means so much to me that you came all the way to New York to be with me today through all of this, but do me a favor and stay out of Stars Hollow for a while, at least until after Mom's wedding."

"You got it," he said. Chris breathed a sigh of relief that he hadn't totally screwed up his chances for a real relationship with his eldest daughter. "So, let's talk about making a plan for you and your sister to hang out."

"Ok," she said as she reached into her purse for her datebook and they began to talk about trying to reconnect with each other.


	39. Chapter 39

The next two days passed quickly for the Gilmore girls. Rory spent another day at the hospital hanging around until she was sure that Logan was out of danger. She had a little bit of an awkward moment with him when he'd first awakened. He assumed that her being there meant that she was over her anger and was willing to give him another chance. She informed again that while she still cared about him, he'd hurt her too much and she couldn't give him another chance and still live with herself. Luke and Lorelai called her to get regular updates and surprisingly so did Christopher. She and her father made plans for her to visit with him at the Hayden estate on Thursday afternoon after her classes were done for the day.

Things finally began to calm down a little for Luke and Lorelai after Nicole had returned to her home and Taylor had backed down, taking Luke's threats to go to the town elders seriously. They spent Monday evening discussing the events of the day with Luke telling Lorelai all about her mother's verbal assault on Taylor while she wished she'd been there to see it. They continued finalizing their wedding plans in the square with no more interference from Taylor. They both took the day off on Wednesday just to spend together since they had their doctor's appointment in the morning and their house-shopping excursion in the afternoon. Before they knew it, they were getting ready to go meet her parents at the realtor's office. Luke was pacing in the living room impatiently waiting for Lorelai to pick an outfit as usual. He was already dressed in a pair of slacks and a lightweight sweater.

"Lorelai!" he called up the stairs. "Come on! We have to meet your parents in forty-five minutes and we still have to drive to Woodbridge to pick up April!"

"I can't help it! I'm totally having a wardrobe crisis up here," she called back.

"Lorelai, it's not that big a deal what you wear," he said as he took the stairs two at a time hoping to hurry her up. He walked into their bedroom to find her still in nothing but her bra and panties and that she'd once again covered their bed with discarded outfits. "It's not like their insane dress code for Friday night dinners. Just pick something already."

"Well. I had the perfect outfit picked out. The gray slacks with the turquoise top…"

"You look good in that top," he said with a smile.

"…but the problem is the pants won't button anymore. I'm getting fat," she said with a sigh.

"You are not," he said. "Sure, you've gained a little weight, but that's to be expected when you're carrying twins. The doctor said that was a good thing when we saw him today, remember?"

"I'm disgusting," she said placing a hand on her stomach and the tiny bump there.

"You are not. It's barely even there, Lorelai. I'm the only one who's noticed it and that's because I'm the one who sees you naked." He smiled at her mischievously.

"Well, that's not gonna be happening again anymore. I can't stand to look at myself. I don't know how you can stand to look at me."

"Hey, I _love _looking at you," he said soothingly. He gently laid his hand over hers and continued, "And this is beautiful to me. This is just evidence of our love for each other." He knelt in front of her and placed a tender kiss to her slightly rounded belly, then looked up at her his love for her shining in his eyes. "You have no idea how amazing it is to me that you're carrying a part of me inside you. That we created these two tiny little lives together. As crazy as it sounds, I can't wait for the day when it's really noticeable and the whole world can see our children growing."

"You're completely cracked," she said as she reached for him. He rose and held her for a moment.

"Maybe I am." He said as he released her and walked to the closet and reached for one of her dresses. "Here, how about this? It's got that kind of flowy skirt thing so it should be loose enough and it looks nice on you."

"That'll work," she said with another sigh as she pulled the dress over her head. "It's just weird. I'm only thirteen weeks pregnant. I shouldn't be showing already and it wasn't there just a few days ago."

"Actually, I noticed it Monday night."

"You did? Why didn't you say anything?"

"I'm not _that _cracked," he said with a laugh. "No man in his right mind should ever tell a woman she looks like she's gained weight, pregnant or not."

"I'm fat," she said.

"No, you aren't," he argued with her again. "Look in the mirror there," he said guiding her to the full length mirror that hung on the bathroom door. "I told you, it's not that noticeable. In that dress you can't even tell that it's there. Besides you heard what the Dr. Gordon said today. It's good that you've gained a few pounds. It means that our babies are growing like they should." He'd been alarmed when Lorelai had told him that she'd lost weight due to the severe morning sickness she'd experienced earlier in her pregnancy, but talking to the doctor today had alleviated his fears. He said that things were progressing as they were supposed to and that both babies were growing rapidly.

"Well, there is one good thing about all the changes my body's going through," she said as she examined herself in the mirror. "I at least look like I've got a decent rack now.

Luke laughed at this and said, "I never had any complaints before you were pregnant. Now, come on. Put your shoes on. We'll never hear the end of it if we keep your mother waiting."

An hour later after picking up April and meeting Richard, Emily and Rory and the real estate office, Luke and Lorelai stepped onto the porch of the first house that Emily had wanted them to see.

Lorelai looked at the house and then at her mother, "This house is beautiful, Mom, but you do realize that we're in Beacon Falls, not Stars Hollow."

"Yes, Lorelai, I know, but it's right on the border and I did a little nosing around and found out that if you grease the palm of the nasty little Doose man, you can get him to change property lines and we can give you a Stars Hollow address if it's really that important to you. Plus, I've done the driving. It's only an extra ten minutes to the inn and an extra five minutes to the diner. Besides I looked at all the available houses in Stars Hollow and none of them seemed to be suitable for your needs and still have that homey feel that you've got in your current home. I know that's important to you and I know how much you love horses so I thought something with a little property might be nice."

"Luke, what do you think?"

"I think we should look at the entire house before we make a decision. You can't tell anything about a house standing on the front porch," He said with a smile at his fiancée.

"Ok, let's look at the house," Lorelai said to Lorene, the real estate agent.

"Ok," Lorene replied as she unlocked the door and ushered them inside. "I talked to the owner, and he said that they would be willing to throw in any of the furniture or appliances that we might like, completely up to you,"

"That's wonderful," Emily said.

"Why is that wonderful, Mom?" Lorelai questioned. "We already have our own brand-new furniture that we picked out together when we were doing the remodel."

"I know that, Lorelai, but this is a bigger house with more space. You'll need more furniture to fill it with."

"I thought we'd just keep filling it with kids until we need an even bigger house," she quipped with a sly smile at Luke who blushed.

"We've already got a good start on that one," Luke said smiling back at her.

"That's right," Lorene said to Lorelai. "Your mother told me when she called me on Monday that the two of you are expecting twins. That's so exciting. I have twin girls of my own."

"Really? "Lorelai queried.

"Yeah, they'll be seniors in high school next fall."

"They grow up so fast," Emily said.

"Tell me about it," Lorelai agreed with a glance at Rory. "This one's going to be a senior in college in the fall."

"So, where would you like to start?" Lorene asked the family and got three different answers.

"Kitchen," Luke said while Lorelai said, "Bedrooms," and Rory and April simultaneously said "Library."

They all laughed for a moment, then Emily said, "Since Richard and I have already seen the house maybe we should divide and conquer. I can take Lorelai upstairs and show her the bedrooms, while you show Luke the kitchen and Richard can give the girls a tour of the library."

"That sounds like a good plan," Lorene said. "Mr. Danes, if you'll follow me,"

"Only if you stop calling me Mr. Danes," Luke quipped. "Luke's fine."

"Fine, Luke it is, then," she replied as she gestured for him to follow her to the kitchen, while the rest of the group dispersed, Rory and April following Richard to the library and Lorelai obediently following her mother upstairs.

When Emily and Lorelai reached the top of the stairs, she started the tour of the second floor much like she had when she showed the house to her husband. "This is the master bedroom," she said she explained to her daughter as she led her into the room. Lorelai walked through the room, trying to imagine their new bedroom furniture in it. She opened the closet and gasped when she saw the size of it, "Wow, I love the closet. With a closet this size, maybe Luke wouldn't complain so much when I shop for new clothes, something I'm going to have to do very soon since I'm getting fat."

"What are you talking about, Lorelai? You're not even showing yet."

"No? Look at this," she said as she pulled the fabric of her dress tight against her abdomen. "Half my pants don't fit anymore."

Emily walked to her daughter and took a closer look at what she was trying to show her."There's hardly anything there," Emily said. "I'd never have noticed it if you hadn't pointed it out."

"Luke noticed it," she said sadly her eyes filling with tears. "Before long, I'll be so gross he won't want to touch me anymore."

"Of course he's going to be the first one to notice the changes in your body. He's the one who…" she hesitated a moment not sure how to phrase what she was thinking without offending her daughter. "…I mean, given our conversation at dinner Sunday night, I assume that the two of you are still quite…um….active in the bedroom."

"For now, anyway," she said the tears sliding down her cheeks.

"Lorelai, what's with the tears? Did Luke say something to you about your weight gain that hurt your feelings?"

"No, nothing like that," she said with a sniffle. "Just the opposite, in fact. He said it was beautiful seeing that our babies are growing, but I think he was just saying that to be nice."

"Please, the man is a Scorpio. They never say anything they don't mean, especially when it comes to bestowing compliments."

"How do you even know that?"Lorelai asked her mother in surprise.

"You'd be surprised by the things I've learned in my research on Scorpio men."

"Wait, you've actually researched this?" she said with a laugh.

"Yes, and I don't appreciate you laughing at this. I'm trying to learn anything I can in any way I can about my future son-in-law."

"Did it ever occur to you to just try to have a real conversation with Luke?"

"It's not that easy, Lorelai. What am I supposed to say to him, 'I'm sorry I've been such a stuck-up snob and oh, by the way, tell me things about yourself, so I can get to know you before you marry my daughter?'"

Lorelai laughed even harder at this, "So, what did you find out in your research about Scorpio men?"

"Now you're just mocking me," Emily said with frustrated sigh.

"No. Mom, I'm not. Seriously, I'm interested in where you're getting your information."

"It started at one of my DAR meetings. Remember how I told you some of the girls get a little crude once they've gotten a few drinks in them?"

"Yeah, I remember," she said. "Go on." She was intrigued. She had to know what her mother had found in her "research."

"Well, Nora, she's the worst one of them, and she started this conversation the other day about how different signs of the zodiac mesh romantically speaking and that got me thinking about you and Luke. Nora directed me to this website that details the compatibility levels between different signs, so just out of curiosity; I looked it up hoping it would give me a clue as to what drives Luke."

"So, what did you find out?" she asked, amusement dancing her eyes at her mother's obvious embarrassment over this situation.

"I found that Scorpio men tend to be cool and reserved on the outside, but a raging inferno inside, equally as prone to explosive outbursts of temper as they are to intense…um…sexual escapades."

"That's Luke to a tee. There's a side of himself that he only shows to me. He gets embarrassed easily when talking about our private life in front of other people, but when we're alone and we're….um…making love, all that shyness goes away. You should hear the things he says to me when we're close. Sometimes he says the sweetest things and other times the words that tumble out of his mouth are so dirty they should be reserved for Cinemax. So, what else did you learn about the inner workings of my man."

"I learned that it's in a Scorpio man's nature to be fiercely loyal once you've gained his trust and that when they're in love they can tend to be a bit possessive and jealous, something I've seen in Luke when Christopher's been around."

"That's the truth," she said. "It can be a little unnerving at times, but in a way, it's kind of comforting to know that he'll fight to keep me and to protect what's his. Make no mistake about it, I _am _his completely."

"That's good to hear, considering that you wedding is one month from today."

"Oh, that's right. Today is May 3rd, isn't it?" She smiled as she thought about it, fingering her engagement ring. "In exactly one month, I'll be Mrs. Danes. Man, does that sound weird."

"Changing your name or the idea of being married?" Emily asked, hoping that her daughter wasn't getting cold feet.

"A little of both," she admitted.

"You're not thinking of backing out?" her mother asked in alarm.

"No! Not at all! I can't wait to marry Luke. I'm just not sure I'm gonna be any good at the whole wife thing. The mother thing I've got down, but I don't have the first clue how to be a wife. What if I suck at it? I'm not a very good housekeeper and I suck at cooking. Luke does all the cooking at our house and he's constantly picking up after me. What if I'm a big disappointment to him and not the kind of wife he wants me to be?"She asked, her eyes once again swimming with tears.

"Lorelai, I hardly think your housekeeping and cooking skills are in any way important to Luke. You live together now so he already knows that about you. Marriage doesn't have to change who you are. Sure, you'll have to learn to compromise on certain things, but you also need to be yourself. I won't lie to you and say that once you say 'I do' everything's completely rosy. That kind of thinking is reserved for fairly tales and Harlequin novels. Look at what your father and I went through just last year and we'd been married for almost forty years at that time. The important thing is to be true to who you are."

"You think?"

"The man is deeply in love with you and that's not going to change as long as you continue to be the woman he fell in love with. That's one of the things that I've observed about your relationship. You're both very stubborn people but you don't try to change each other. You accept each other's differences and that's the kind of thing that a lasting marriage is built on. The two of you have a solid foundation, now you just need to build it up."

"Interesting choice of words, considering what we're doing here today, looking at a house to build a life together in," she said with a smile.

"Let's look at the rest of the upstairs," she said as she started to lead her daughter to the master bath, but Lorelai's voice stopped her for a moment.

"Hey, Mom?"

Emily turned back to face her daughter and replied, "Yes?"

"Thanks for listening. I'm sorry about the tears. I've been a little more weepy than usual lately."

"That's to be expected when you're pregnant, Lorelai. It's all the hormonal changes. I remember when I was expecting you I nearly drove your father to drinking with my out-of-the-blue crying jags and he just dealt with it. I must have driven him crazy."

"Luke's been amazing. When I get like this, he just puts his arms around me and holds me until I get it all out, then it's like nothing ever happened. Like the other day when Nicole called about setting up the meeting thing with Taylor. Even though I know in my heart that Luke is with me, I still got a little crazed at the thought of him meeting with his ex. I blubbered like a baby and he just held me and reassured me that I'm the only woman he wants."

"You should listen to him. I highly doubt he's the type of man who would swallow his pride and agree to let us buy him a house if he didn't love you and think it was what's best for your family. Now, are you ready to see the rest of the house?"

"Yeah," she said as she followed her mother into the bathroom. "I like this," she said as she noticed that it had the double sink setup similar to what they had now. Lorelai gasped as they stepped into the bedroom on the other side. "Oh my God! This room would make a perfect nursery for little Donny and Marie here!" she exclaimed as she placed her hand on her abdomen.

"Donny and Marie?" Emily questioned. "That's not seriously what you're thinking of naming your children?"

"No, Mom. It's just a nickname so we have something to call them besides Baby One and Baby Two. We haven't started talking about names yet. We had another appointment with the doctor today and he said it's still a little too early to determine the sex of the babies. I was thinking though that if we have a boy, it'd be nice to name him William after Luke's dad since he can't be here to see his grandchildren."

"I think that's a lovely idea. I'm sure Luke's touched by that thought."

"I actually haven't mentioned it to him yet. I thought we'd wait until we know the sex of the babies for sure before we start talking about names. I don't even know if Luke would like the idea."

"If I'd like what idea?" Luke asked from the doorway.

"The idea of turning this room into a nursery," she lied, not quite ready to discuss the idea with him yet. Her mother looked at her in surprise. Lorelai gave her a pleading look in return, silently asking her not to say anything until she was ready to bring up the subject. "I mean, if we decide that this is the house for us, that is. It'd be convenient because it's connected to the master bedroom by a bathroom so when our little ones wake us in the middle of the night we can be right here for them in a flash."

"I don't know about the nursery part yet, but I can tell you that I'm totally in love with the kitchen. When I was in there looking at it, I could just imagine the family meals I could fix with all the room it's got, plus it's got a little breakfast nook that's the perfect size for our kitchen table and a ton of storage space for all my cooking utensils and pots and pans and stuff."

Lorelai smiled at his enthusiasm and said, "So, I'm guessing the kitchen was a big hit."

"Yeah, the plumbing needs updated but other than that it's great! On my way up here I took a peek in at our girls in the library and you should've heard the way they were both gushing about the size of it and how they wouldn't have to fight over space for their massive quantities of books."

"That's definitely a good thing. Come on, I wanna show you the master bedroom."

"I think I'll just go find Lorene and she what else she may have heard from the owner while the two of you look around," Emily said.

"Ok, Mom," Lorelai replied as she took Luke's hand and lead him into what could potentially be their new bedroom.

Walking through the bathroom, he had pretty much the same reaction that she did. "Nice bathroom. There's plenty of room if we both need to be in here at the same time, just like in the bathroom we've got now."

"And we wouldn't have t o share it with Rory and risk her walking in on us doing dirty things again," she added with a grin.

"That too," he said with a smile as they proceeded to the bedroom hand in hand.

"So, I was thinking that if we decide on this house that right there would be a good place for our bed. That would leave plenty of room for both nightstands on either side of it and my dresser on the wall next to the bathroom door and yours on the opposite wall next to the closet door."

"You mean right here is where you think our bed should be," he said suggestively as he put his arms around her waist and guided her to the spot she'd indicated.

"Yeah, right about here," she answered sliding her arms around his neck.

"So, if we moved in here, this is where we'd be sleeping side by side every night," he said as he kissed her tenderly, then continued, "and where we'd make love," he added in a lower voice as he kissed her again a little more forcefully. She fervently kissed him back pulling on his neck to deepen the kiss as he wrapped his arms more tightly around her. They were lost in the moment until they were interrupted by the sound of someone clearing their throat loudly in the doorway. They pulled apart and turned to see who it was.

"Sorry to interrupt," Richard said sheepishly. "It's just that your mother sent me to get you. We're ready to take a look at the grounds if you'd care to join us."

"Uh, yeah," Luke answered awkwardly, embarrassed that Richard had caught him pawing his daughter. "Sorry."

Richard dismissed his apology with a wave of his hand and said," Nothing to be sorry for. I'll just give you two a moment to compose yourselves and meet you downstairs." Lorelai giggled a little at the expression on Luke's face as her father left the room.

"What's so funny?" Luke said gruffly.

"That guilty look on your face when my dad walked in on us making out like a pair of teenagers was priceless! I wish I'd had a camera to capture that."

"It's not funny. Your dad's just starting to trust me with you and the last thing I wanted was for him to see me groping you. I don't want him thinking that I'm some kind of sex fiend."

"I like it when you're groping me," she said with an impish grin."I told you that the night of Lane's wedding. I love it when you touch me, even if it's just something small like holding my hand or the little kisses we share when we're greeting each other at the end of our work day." She planted a chaste kiss on his lips.

"I know, but it's not something I want to be doing in front of your dad." He reached for her hand and said, "Let's get down there and look at the rest of the property before he starts thinking I'm a total perv."

As they walked through the grounds they both began to imagine their future children playing in the yard. When they were led to the little pond on the property, Lorelai pictured Luke there teaching their children to fish like he'd taught her several years ago. As they examined the stables Luke pictured Lorelai grooming and petting horses the way he'd seen her do many times with Cletus and Desdemona at the Dragonfly. As he stepped out of the stable he even pictured Paul Anka running around the yard being chased by a little girl with Lorelai's dark curls and bright blue eyes. He was soon joined by the rest of his family as they finished their tour and began to walk back toward the house.

"So," Lorene began, "What does everyone think?"

"Luke?" Lorelai questioned her fiancé.

"I don't know," he answered thought that wasn't quite true. He could easily imagine them raising their family here, but he wanted their opinion too. "This house is something else, but what do you girls think?" He asked Rory and April.

"I think it's a great house and you guys would be stupid to let this one get away," Rory answered.

"I agree, Dad," April said. "I haven't even seen the upstairs yet and I think this house is amazing. I'd love to have our visits here."

"You do know that wherever we decide to live, you'll have a room to call your own, right?"

"I hadn't given it much thought," she said which wasn't completely true. She had thought about having overnight visits with her dad like some of her friends with divorced parents did, but she was hesitant to bring up the subject because she didn't want to intrude on his life with Lorelai. "But I think that's nice," she added.

"Why don't we show you the upstairs so that your parents can talk with Lorene about what they want to do," Richard suggested. Rory and April agreed and followed their grandparents back into the house.

"So, Lorelai," Luke said. "Everyone's given their opinion on this house but you.

She looked at the house and then back at her future husband and said,"Feels like home to me."

"You mean that?"He asked elated. He'd been thinking the same thing, but didn't want to get his hopes up in case she didn't want it. He didn't want to be disappointed again like he'd been with the Twickham house.

"Yeah, I mean it's gonna be hard giving up the Crap Shack, but this feels like the right place for our family."

"Well, I guess that settles it, Lorene. This is the house. I guess we should go get Emily and Richard back down here to seal the deal."

"No need. We already discussed what offer they were going to make on the house if you decided you wanted it. We were just waiting for your approval. All I need to do now is call the owner with the offer. Excuse me, please," she said as she pulled out her cell and walked a little ways away from them.

"The nerve of my mother," Lorelai grumbled. "She just assumed that this would be the house we'd want."

Luke laughed and said, "But she was right, wasn't she? We didn't even look at another house and decided this one was the one."

Lorelai looked back at the house. "It's just weird. Mine and my mother's tastes are so different, I never imagined that she would have put so much thought into finding us a house that fits the needs of our growing family and still feel like us, you know?"

Luke slipped up behind her and wrapped his arms around her placing his hands over the tiny bump that housed his unborn children and leaning his chin on her shoulder. "I know what you mean. When I agreed to do this, I never expected to find a house we could agree on so fast. I think we'll be happy here."

"I was thinking that no matter how fast my mother gets this deal done, that maybe we should wait until after we're married to actually move in if that's ok with you. That'll give us time to get Tom in here to start work and get the old house organized. Plus, I kind of like the idea of the first night we spend here together being as husband and wife. We can keep on living in sin in the old house until were ready to sell it."

"You wanna sell the old house now? You didn't want to part with it when we were talking about buying the Twickham house."

"New life, new house," she said firmly. "Besides, wanting to hang on to that house was more for Rory than me and she's made it clear that she doesn't want the house to live in by herself. She wants to be a part of our family life and that family life is going to be here."

"Come on, let's go let our girls know that," he said as he unwrapped himself from her and took her hand in his and they walked back into the house that was to become their new home.

They walked upstairs to find their daughters chatting about which room they each wanted if the house became theirs. April bounced up to them excitedly. "So, are you gonna take it? Please, please say yes. I already know which room I want."

"Me too," Rory said, equally excited.

"Lorene's making the call to the owner now," her father confirmed with a smile eliciting exuberant squeals from both girls as they rushed to hug him and Lorelai at once. Richard and Emily looked at each other and beamed as they watched the group hug and the happiness of their family. The hug broke up and Rory leaned down and talked to her mother's stomach, "Did you hear that, Donny and Marie? This is going to be our new house!"

"Donny and Marie?" April questioned. "What did I miss?"

"It's what we're calling your new siblings until we know their sex and get real names picked out for them," Lorelai explained.

"That's cute," she said. April joined her future step-sister in talking to the twins. "Hi, Donny and Marie. I'm your big sister, April. I can't wait to meet you."

"Well, you've got a while before that's gonna happen and I'm not in any hurry to go through the pain of labor just yet, especially after what this one put me through," she said with a playful smile directed at her daughter.

"And you got back at me by naming me Lorelai after yourself," Rory teased back.

April looked at Rory in surprise,"Your name is Lorelai too?"

"Yeah, Rory is short for Lorelai. Mom was all whacked out on Demerol when she named me."

"That had nothing to do with it," Lorelai protested. "I was just doing what guys do. They have their sons named after them all the time."

"Well, if we have a son, that is so not happening in this case," Luke said. "I hate my name and I wouldn't stick my kid with it."

"You mean you don't want a little Lucas Junior walking around?" Rory teased.

"No, and don't call me Lucas."

"Why not, Lucas," she said just to get to him.

"Knock it off, _Lorelai._"

"That's just mean, Luke," Rory said.

"There's nothing wrong with the name Lorelai," Richard interjected. "That was your great grandmother's name."

"I know that, Grandpa, and I don't mean any disrespect to Gran. It's not that I don't like my name. It's just weird having the same name as my mother and besides, nobody calls me anything but Rory. I'm not even sure I'd even respond if someone called me Lorelai. I'd probably think they were talking to Mom."

"You have a good point there," Richard said.

Their name conversation was interrupted by Lorene returning after finishing her phone call, "Good news," she said. "The owner accepted your offer. Now all that's left to do is complete the paperwork and I've set up an appointment with the owner to do that tomorrow afternoon. So, providing he doesn't change his mind between now and then, it looks like your family has a new home."

Rory and April cheered at the news while Luke and Lorelai smiled at them and at the thought that their lives were finally starting to come together. They spent the rest of the afternoon walking through the house together looking at the remaining furniture that the previous owner had left behind and deciding if they wanted any of it and starting making plans for how to arrange their own furniture in it once they were able to move in. They spent a good amount of time in the room that was going to become the nursery making plans to prepare it for the arrival of their children. Emily smiled as she silently watched her daughter make plans with her future husband for their new home. She kept her word to Luke that she wouldn't try to interfere with what they wanted to do with it, even though she was itching to make some suggestions. She knew that Lorelai would take offense to it and that if her daughter wanted her opinion, she'd ask for it. They were so busy making plans that before they knew it, it was time to take April home to her mother and for the Gilmores to return to Hartford and Rory to New Haven.

When Luke pulled the truck up in front of Anna's house in Woodbridge he was surprised and a little alarmed to see her walking toward the truck instead of waiting for April inside like she normally did. He wondered if he'd done something wrong in her eyes again. Things had been good for the past few weeks with them sharing time with April better. He had hoped that that would continue. He hesitantly stepped out of the truck, not sure what she wanted, as April climbed out behind him.

"Hi, Hon," Anna said to her daughter. "Did you have a good time with your dad?"

"Yeah, it was great," she said.

"Well, I wanna hear all about it, but first I need to talk to your dad and Lorelai for a minute. So, go on in the house and I'll be in when we're done out here."

"Mom," She said with a worried look praying that her parents weren't going to fight about her visits with her dad again, just when she was really starting to get to know him.

"It's nothing bad, Sweetie. I promise I'll tell you all about it after I've talked to your dad. Now, go on in the house."

"Ok," she said warily, but did as she was told. Lorelai slid out of the truck and stood by Luke's side.

"So, what did you want to talk to me about, Anna?" Luke asked apprehensively.

"Relax, Luke. Like I said, it's nothing bad. In fact, I think it's a good thing for you if you'll give me a chance to tell you what's on my mind without getting defensive."

Lorelai linked her arm through Luke's and said, "Let her say what she needs to say, Hon."

"What is it, Anna?"

"Well, I've been thinking about this weekend. You've got this birthday party going on for her on Saturday, plus you've got that Friday night dinner thing with Lorelai's parents so I was thinking that maybe to make it a little easier on all of us, I might be a good time to start doing weekend visits with April. That way you wouldn't have to drive her back here late on Friday just to turn right back around and pick her up on Saturday."

"Wait a minute," Lorelai said. "I thought you didn't want us to keep April for the weekend until after we got married."

"Are you saying you don't want her there for the whole weekend," Anna said narrowing her eyes at Lorelai.

"No, I'm not saying that at all. I'd love to have April for the whole weekend. It just surprised me that you suggested it, that's all."

"Yeah, why are you bringing it up all of a sudden? You were the one who didn't think we'd be setting a good example for April by living together without being married."

"I'm bringing it up because it's what April wants. She was so happy when she came home from that trip and all the time she got to spend with you and she mentioned it the first night she was home. She said she didn't think it was right that other kids whose parents are split up get to have whole weekends with their dads and she doesn't. When I told her that I wanted that to wait until you guys were married, she yelled at me and said I was just being stupid because whether you're married or not, she already knows that the two of you are sleeping together because of the twins so what difference does it make? Those were her words not mine."

"So, you're really ok with April spending the weekend at our house?"

"Not completely, but I'm tired of fighting her on this. I'd be lying if I said I was totally ok with it, but if it will make her happy, I guess there's no good reason not to let her spend at least one weekend at your house to test the waters. Besides that, I know where you live," she said in a mock menacing voice."

Luke and Lorelai both laughed at this before Luke said, "Thanks for giving me the chance."

"You're welcome. Just bring her home in one piece at the end of it," she said.

"I will," he promised.

"Good," she said as she turned her back on them and walked back into the house to hear about her daughter's day.

"Wow," Lorelai said. "That's quite the turnaround for her, allowing us a whole weekend with April."

"Yeah, it's just too bad that we don't have that bigger house yet. There's no place for her to sleep since Rory's gonna be home for the weekend too. I guess there's always the couch, but it somehow doesn't seem right for her not to have her own place in our home."

"You know, Rory would probably be willing to give up her room for just one weekend."

"No," he said firmly. "I'm not gonna ask Rory to give up her room. It's not fair to her."

"Then how about we start cleaning out the attic? You've still got Jess' old bed and dresser in the apartment that we could put up there for her. We're gonna need to clean the attic out anyway when we get ready to move, so why not do it now. That'll be one less thing to do later."

"You'd be willing to do that for April?"

"Of course, then at least she'll feel like she has her own space there even if it is just a makeshift space until we get into the new house and she has her own room."

He smiled brightly at her, touched by her willingness to make room for his daughter in their home, especially considering what an ass he'd bee by keeping April away from her."Have I told you how much I love you?"

"Yeah, but it's always nice to hear again," she replied reflecting back on the conversation she'd had with her mother and loving that this simple gesture had made him so happy. Maybe she wouldn't be such a bad wife after all.


	40. Chapter 40

AN:Sorry this update took so long. I got a promotion at work recently that has kept me pretty busy. I had every intention of finishing this chapter a week ago, but it just didn't happen. Sorry for the wait and thanks for your patience. I was going to include April's party in this chapter, but once I started writing it, it kind of took on a life of its own and is already longer than my typical chapter so I'm going to end it here, but the party will be in the next one. Thanks to everyone who's been faithfully reading and reviewing. I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Lanie

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The next two days passed in a flurry of activity. Emily and Richard met with the real estate agent and the current owner of the house they wanted to purchase for Luke and Lorelai to finalize the arrangements. Emily then once again accosted Taylor demanding that he orchestrate the moving of property lines so that her daughter and future son-in-law would still be a part of the Stars Hollow community when they moved. He balked at first after her abuse of him a few days earlier, but she hammered away at him reminding him of his despicable act of using her daughter's wedding plans as a bargaining chip in his business affairs causing him to relent and at least agree to put it to a vote at the next town meeting.

While Emily and Richard were finalizing the house deal, Luke and Lorelai spent most of the day Thursday cleaning out the attic to make room for April, discarding things that were no longer needed and moving things that they may need in the future to the garage. Luke then used his trusty Chevy pickup to haul Jess' old bed, dresser and desk over to the house for April along with the armchair and floor lamp from the living room of the apartment to give April a comfortable place to read. They met with Lorene and Tom at the new house on Friday to discuss updating the plumbing and doing some light remodeling once they'd gotten word that everything went through with the house. They were informed by Emily that they could move in as early as June 1st, but they told her of their plan to wait until after they were married to move into their new home, which she seemed to please her.

Luke was the first one to arrive home on Friday afternoon. He was just surveying his handiwork in what was to be April's temporary bedroom. It was kind of bare, but it would have to do for now. He was heading to the front door and had just grabbed his keys off of the entry table when the doorbell rang. He opened the door to find Anna and April standing on the other side of it.

"Hey, Dad," April said as she walked in with her mother on her heels.

"Hey, Kid," he said as he greeted her with a hug. "I was just on my way to pick you up."

"She was anxious to see you, so I told her I'd bring her over here," Anna explained. "I hope it's ok that she's here early."

"Yeah, it's fine. She's always welcome here whenever. I was just making sure everything's set up in her room."

"My room?" April questioned. "I have a room here now?" She smiled.

"Yes, you do. Lorelai and I have been getting it ready for you. It's not perfect, but it's a place for you to have your own space so you don't have to share with Rory or sleep on the couch. When we get into the new house, you'll have a better place."

"That's another reason that I wanted to drop her off," Anna said. "I wanted to see what arrangements you'd made for her. When I agreed to this, I wasn't thinking about how small this house is."

"Well, come on, then. I'll show you," he said as he led them to the attic bedroom he'd set up for his daughter. Anna examined the room with the critical eye of a mother looking out for her daughter's safety. "Like I said, it's not perfect, but it's got everything she needs. She's got a bed to sleep in, a dresser for her clothes, a desk to do her homework on and we set up the chair in the corner if she wants a place to read. It's a little sparse, but Lorelai has a shopping trip planned for Sunday so we can get her some stuff to decorate it with and make it her own."

April looked at the room and said, "You did all this for me?"

Luke nodded. "I meant what I said the other day. You will always have a place in our home. Now, I know that this isn't the big room you picked out in the new house, but we won't be able to move in there for another month, so this will have to do for now. The clothes that you left here before are in the dresser. I'm sorry there's not a closet, but there's a clothes rack there that Lorelai and I used during the remodel when we couldn't get to our closet if you have stuff that needs hung up."

"It's cool. I only have a couple of things that need hanging," she said, indicating the garment bag she was holding along with her backpack and overnight bag. "I got a new dress for dinner tonight." She dropped her stuff onto the bed and unzipped the bag to show her dad. "See?" She lifted out a sleeveless knee-length black print dress with tiny purple flowers all over it.

"That's very pretty."

"Thanks," she said smiling. "I picked it out myself. Mom took me shopping for my birthday and I'm getting a little more into the dressing like a girl thing. Plus, I figured I can't keep wearing the same skirt and blouse to dinner at the Gilmores."

"Probably not a good idea since Emily notices things like that. Knowing the way she thinks, she'd think I wasn't providing for you properly if you only have one nice outfit."

"Emily?"Anna questioned.

"My mother-in-law," he said with a grimace. She wasn't technically his mother-in-law yet, but he figured he'd better get used to calling her that when the wedding was less than a month away. He'd resigned himself to the fact that by marrying Lorelai, he was agreeing to Emily's presence in his life."She's a little…" he struggled to find the right word.

"Critical?" Anna supplied. "Like my mother?"

"Yeah, she means well, but she can be a little overbearing sometimes. She seems to really like April, though. I mean, she doesn't seem as freaked out by the situation as I thought she'd be. In fact, she and her husband, Richard, are coming to April's party tomorrow."

"He's pretty cool. He likes to debate books and stuff, like I do," April said. "The last time I was at their house, he and Rory and I got into this big discussion about _Atlas Shrugged._"

"Oh, Lord," Anna said. "I hope you were at least polite about it I know how wound up you can get when you feel strongly about something and I know how angry that book made you."

"She was perfectly well-behaved, Anna. In fact, Richard seemed to enjoy having someone else to debate with besides Rory."

"Luke, are you home?" they heard Lorelai calling from downstairs.

"Up here in April's room!" he called down the stairs.

Lorelai walked into the room a little out of breath laden with garment bags and shoe boxes, "Whoa, too many stairs," she said as she greeted her fiancé with a quick kiss. "Hi, April." She nodded toward Anna acknowledging her presence.

"What is all this stuff?" Luke asked.

"This is your tux and April's dress for the wedding and the matching shoes."

"Cool!" April said. "Can I see? I wanna see how the shoes turned out."

"Of course," she said handing her the bag containing her dress. "The box on top has your shoes in it."

April took the garment bag and shoe box from her future step-mother, laid the bag on the bed and gleefully opened the box, "Wow! They're so pretty! I can't wait to wear them on your wedding day," she said excitedly. "Mom, look, aren't they perfect?"

"Yeah, they're very nice," Anna said with a slight frown. "Lorelai, could I possibly have a word with you in private?"

"Um…sure," she said, not liking the tone in Anna's voice. "I'm just gonna put Luke's stuff in our closet if you want to come with."

"That works," Anna said.

"Come on, April, let's get you unpacked," Luke said as he exchanged a worried glance with Lorelai.

Anna followed Lorelai down the stairs and into the bedroom she shared with Luke. "So, what did you want to talk to me about?" Lorelai asked her a little nervously as she dropped the box containing Luke's new shoes onto the bed and walked to the closet to hang his tux next to her wedding dress, and then turned toward Anna. "Please, tell me you haven't changed your mind about this weekend. Luke's so excited about it. It's all he's talked about for two days and he busted his ass getting the attic room ready for April. He's really trying to be a good father to her."

"No, that's not it," Anna replied. "I know that he's trying to be a good father to her and I can see that he's doing his best to make April feel welcome in your home, but it's not him I'm worried about. It's you."

"Me? What have I done? I've been nothing but friendly to April," she said defensively.

"A little _too _friendly if you ask me," Anna said hotly.

"What the hell does that mean? You don't want me to be nice to your kid when she's going to be my step-daughter next month? Would you rather have me be the stereotypical evil step-mother who only tolerates the kid because she has to?"

"I'm not trying to be a bitch, Lorelai, but I think you've overstepped your bounds a little with my kid. There are some things that should be just between a mother and daughter."

"I'm still not getting what you're talking about. What have I done that was so wrong?"

"I'm talking about the shoes you bought her for the wedding," Anna explained.

"You don't like the shoes? Is that all?"

"It's not the shoes themselves, Lorelai. They're beautiful and it's obvious that she loves them. It's just that they're her first pair of heels. I took her shopping last weekend for her birthday and I was so excited that she actually wanted some girly stuff. I couldn't believe it when she said she wanted a new dress and then was even more surprised when she picked out this really cute pair of high-heeled strappy sandals to go with it. I was thinking that it was just the teenage girl thing kicking in until we got home and she wanted to model her new stuff for me. She seemed a little more comfortable walking around in those heels that I thought she would be for her first time doing it until…" Anna broke off not sure how to phrase what she wanted to say to Lorelai.

Realization dawned on Lorelai as she got what Anna was upset about, "…until you realized that it wasn't the first time she'd walked in heels," Lorelai said completing her thought. Now, she understood what Anna was upset about.

"Exactly," Anna said. "It was then that April told me more of the details of her trip to the bridal shop with you and you trying to teach her how to walk in heels. I know you must think I'm a massive bitch for saying this and it probably seems petty to you, but I've waited so long for my little girl to actually want to _be_ a girl, that it hurt that she'd shared that experience with you first. That you were the one responsible for her interest in expanding her wardrobe a little bit."

"Anna, I'm so sorry. I wasn't even thinking about that part of it when I took April shopping for her wedding stuff. I really didn't mean to step on your toes. I was just trying to do something nice for her."

"I get that, but it still bothers me. I know you can't go back and change it. What's done is done, but I feel like I missed out a major event in my daughter's life because of you."

"I really _am _sorry, Anna. I should've discussed it with you first. Having a daughter of my own I can't imagine how it would feel not to have shared that with Rory. I promise from now on, I'll run anything like that past you before I just dive on in."

"I'd appreciate that and I accept your apology."

"So, are we good?"

"Yeah, we're good," Anna said with a sigh. "I appreciate that you've accepted my daughter in your life with no hesitation, especially considering the fact that you and Luke are having kids of your own. A lot of women would feel threatened and not be that generous with another woman's kid. I just wanted to make my feelings known, rather than let it stew. April loves spending time with you and Luke, and even your daughter and I'm trying hard to accept the fact that she's going to have you in her life in a motherly way, but I want it understood that _I'm _her mother and there are some things that are off-limits."

Lorelai breathed a sigh of relief. "I get that," Lorelai said with a nod."I'm really not trying to take anything away from you. I just want to be there for April the way Luke has always been there for Rory. I'm just still trying to learn all the ins and outs of this whole step-mom thing and I want you to feel free to tell me if I'm doing something with April that makes you uncomfortable. The last thing that I want is to fight with you and jeopardize the relationship that Luke has worked so hard to build with April." She paused for a moment before a thought struck her. She'd been so busy planning April's party that it hadn't occurred to her that Anna may not like the plans she'd made. "So, where do you stand on make-up? I had this whole makeover party theme planned for tomorrow. I was thinking teenage girls and make-up kind of go hand in hand, but if that's something you're not comfortable with, I can always change things up a bit. Running an inn that does a lot of catered events, I'm used to making last minute changes to party planning."

"It's fine. I bought April a little make-up kit when we went shopping and we kind of had our own bonding moment with it when she was doing her little fashion show with her new outfits for me last Saturday."

"Good, so it's ok, then?"

"Yeah, I'm sure she and her girlfriends will enjoy that. I should get going and let you guys get your weekend started. I'm just gonna go say good-bye to April." They both walked out of the room and up the stairs to the attic where April was busily arranging her belongings in her new room.

"I'm gonna take off. So you've got my cell phone if there's any problem," Anna said to Luke.

"I've got your cell number, your store number, your store fax number, and your home numbers. You are one hundred percent reachable," Luke said indicating that he could be trusted to contact her if he needed to.

"Good."

"And hey, Thanks again for letting me do this."

"Oh, please. She's excited about this. Plus your chaperoning got rave reviews."

"Really?" Luke said surprised and a little pleased.

"April said you were by far the least embarrassing parent on the trip."

"Good. That's good, right?" He was happy to hear that in light of the fact that April had made in known that she was a little embarrassed by his interaction with the boy she had a crush on.

"It's a rave! Her friends call you Hagrid."

"Really? Hagrid? Wow." He looked a little puzzled and cleared his throat. "I have no idea what that means."

"He's a character from _Harry Potter_," Lorelai interjected. "Very big, very hairy, very lovable. It's a huge compliment, Babe."

"Oh, I will take your word for it."

"Oh no, don't just take my word for it. I _so _have to introduce you to _Harry Potter _now."

"Well, I'm going to go now. Have fun and I'll talk to you on Sunday. I'm going, April!"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, bye, Mom," April said as she waved her off dismissively while she continued organizing her room with the few things she'd brought with her for the weekend. She'd already hung her dresses, including her bridesmaid dress, on the rack they'd set up to be her temporary closet and was now busily unpacking her overnight bag into the dresser.

"That was from the heart," Anna said sarcastically.

"Totally," Lorelai said as the three of them shared a laugh.

"Bye, again," Anna said as she took her leave of them.

When she was gone Luke turned to Lorelai. "Is everything ok?" he asked in concern, hoping that Anna hadn't done anything to upset Lorelai.

"Yeah, everything's cool. It was just a little misunderstanding, which Anna and I talked out. It's all good."

"Good," he said.

"It was about the shoes, wasn't it" April asked.

"How do you know that?" Lorelai asked. "Did your mom say something to you about it?"

"No, but she seemed a little weirded out when I told her about our trip to the bridal shop, so I put two and two together. I'm thirteen, not five," she said matter-of-factly.

"You're just too damn perceptive for you own good," Luke said gruffly, but affectionately.

"Language, Dad," she teased.

"Jeez," he said as Lorelai laughed.

"Hey, you're always telling me to watch my language."

"You're only thirteen and I'm…older," he said not quite comfortable with the fact that he was going to be forty in November.

"Older or not, I've still got first amendment rights even if I am only thirteen," she said with a mischievous grin reiterating her statement to Richard from the first Friday dinner she'd attended.

"God, between you and Lorelai and Rory, I'm surrounded by mouthy women," he said with a bemused shake of his head.

"But you love us," Lorelai said.

"Yeah, even when you drive me crazy," he agreed.

"Short drive if you ask me," she quipped.

"Look who's talking," he fired back. "You could walk to Crazy Town."

"At least that's where they've got the good drugs," she said amusement dancing in her eyes. She loved that they were able to joke with each other again like they used to. While she knew things wouldn't always be perfect, she also knew that they'd come a long way in the last month since they'd resumed really talking things out.

"There aren't enough drugs in the world to help you," he retorted light-heartedly.

"Do I need to separate you two?" April teased lightly glad to see her dad so happy. While they'd had a good time on their trip together and had gotten to know each other a lot better, she knew that he'd missed Lorelai terribly and that it had hurt him to be away from her for that long.

"What?" Lorelai questioned innocently. "We're just having a little fun, something that's strictly prohibited where we're going tonight."

"Oh, Come on, Lorelai," Luke said. "It's not that bad."

"This coming from the man who wanted me to use our unborn children as an excuse to get out of Friday night dinner the last time we all went together?"

"I'm just saying that your parents seem to have mellowed out a little lately. Besides it's all part of that 'whole package' deal that we're working for, right?" He said as he slipped her arm around her waist.

"I guess you're right," she said as she kissed him softly.

"Hey!" April said. "If you guys are gonna start getting gross on me, take it to your own room!"

"Less than a day in her new room and she's already kicking us out of it," Lorelai grumbled.

"We should start getting dressed for dinner with your parents anyway," he said. "You should too, April," he added to his daughter as he and Lorelai left to change clothes.

Ten minutes later, Luke was dressed in dress slacks and a long-sleeved oxford shirt while Lorelai was still staring hopelessly into their closet. Luke reached around her for a tie and said, "What's taking you so long?"

"I can't find anything that won't make me look like a blimp."

"Will you get over this already? You do _not _look like a blimp. You're barely even showing at all. Nobody else has even noticed but me."

"_I've _noticed," she said stroking her stomach lightly as she let out a sigh. "This sucks! I'm too fat for most of my regular clothes and not fat enough yet for maternity clothes."

"Would you stop? You're not fat! You're pregnant and there's a difference. You look beautiful to me. I love that you've got some curves now, and your hair is shinier, and your skin has this glow that's just amazing."

"You really mean that?"

"I wouldn't say it if I didn't. Now, come on. You've got a ton of dresses in the closet that are made like the one you wore the other day that are a little looser in the waist. Just pick one."

"Fine," she said and started rummaging through the closet again just as April knocked on the door.

"Come on in," Luke said.

April tentatively opened the door. "Are you guys decent? I just need the bathroom."

"Well, I am and Lorelai's buried in the closet right now, so go on in."

"Thanks," she said as she entered the bathroom.

Lorelai emerged from the closet with a dress in her hands, "How about this one?"

"That'll work," Luke said with a smile.

"Ok," she said as she began to get dressed.

"Having a fashion crisis?" April called from the bathroom.

"Yeah, It's because of your new siblings making my clothes not fit right," she answered as she zipped up her dress.

Luke looked at her in the dress she'd picked. "I remember that dress. That's the one you were wearing the night we got engaged." He leaned and whispered in her ear so April wouldn't hear. "I remember taking it off of you."

"I'll just be you do," Lorelai said with a smile.

"If that story has a dirty ending, feel free to keep it to yourselves," April called from the bathroom, not having heard her father's whispered words.

"Rory's starting to rub off on you a little too much, I think," Lorelai answered with a smile as she joined her future step-daughter in the bathroom and started working on her own make-up.

"Isn't it good that we're getting along and getting to know each other? We're going to be step-sisters when you and Dad get married."

"I love it that you guys are getting to know each other. In fact Rory suggested that when we take our shopping trip on Sunday, she suggested that we do it in New Haven so she can show you the campus. How does that sound?"

"Awesome!" She squealed excitedly. When she had calmed down a little she asked, "But what's Dad gonna do when we're shopping? He's not much of a shopping guy."

"He's already got a male bonding ritual planned with my dad at the country club golf course in Hartford. That's why we planned the shopping trip, to give us girls something to do while he's gone."

"Hey," Luke said as he walked into the room to comb his hair. "I already made those plans before I knew we were gonna have April for the whole weekend and you know that I can't cancel plans with your dad at the last minute. Besides, I'm only living up to my end of the bargain. He was a pretty good sport about me dragging him out to the batting cages."

"I still wish I could've been there to see that," Lorelai said with a bemused smile.

"What I would've liked to see is you and your mother in Victoria's Secret shopping for our honeymoon. I bet that was entertaining."

"Ewww," April said at the reference to Victoria's Secret and their honeymoon. "On that note, I'm outta here."

"You don't have to leave the room, April," Lorelai said.

"It's cool. I'm done anyway. See?" she said indicating her made up face to Lorelai.

"What's with all that?" Luke asked. "Does your mother know you're wearing make-up now?"

"Yes, Dad. She bought this for me," She said gesturing to her make-up bag on the counter.

"Are you even old enough for that stuff?"

"Dad, I'm a teenager now."

"I think she looks very pretty," Lorelai said. "It looks nice. It's not too much and the whole point of wearing make-up is to make it look like you're not wearing any. She did that beautifully."

"Although I skipped the 'you can never wear too much blue eye shadow' bit."

"Oh, my god, you actually _got _that reference!" Lorelai beamed.

"Sure. _My Girl_, Jamie Lee Curtis and the whole future step-mother bonding over make-up thing. I love that movie."

"Me too," Lorelai said with a smile. "You know, I've got a sweater in my closet that would go perfectly with that dress if you'd like to borrow it."

"Cool!"

Luke smile as he watched his daughter and his future wife interacting. He saw how happy they both were and shook his head wondering why he'd ever kept them apart.

Forty-five minutes later, they were being ushered into the elder Gilmore house by yet another new maid. April looked at Lorelai and asked, "What happened to Estelle?"

"Oh, Honey, you have so much to learn. There have been at least three maids in here since then," she said. "And never ask what happened to a maid in this house or you'll start my mother on a tirade about how hard it is to find good help these days. And don't bother trying to learn their names or get to know them because by the time you do, there'll be new one and you'll have to start the process all over again."

Luke chuckled and said, "It's true, Kid. Your step-grandmother-to -be is a little hard on her maids."

"That is an exaggeration," Emily said defensively. "I simply expect them to do things my way."

Rory who'd already arrived from New Haven watched them with some amusement. "Come on, Grandma," she said. "You can be a pretty scary woman. There have been some maids who've left this house terrified, like in those cheesy old B-horror movies where the kids get dared to walk into a house that's rumored to be haunted."

"April, don't listen to a word they say," Emily said. "They make me sound like the wicked witch of the west."

"If the pointy shoes fit…" Lorelai said with a chuckle earning her a look of contempt from her mother as she and Luke took their usual seats and April joined Rory opposite them while Richard began fixing drinks for the new arrivals.

"So, Rory," Luke began to change the subject before Emily could say anything else. "How was your big dinner thing last night?" He wasn't anxious to talk about Christopher, but he also didn't want the calm between Lorelai and her mother disrupted, especially since their wedding day was fast approaching.

"It was ok, I guess," Rory answered. "A little weird, though."

"What dinner thing?" Richard asked as he handed drinks to Luke, Lorelai and April and returned to his seat.

"I was invited to dinner at the Hayden estate with Dad, Gigi and my other grandmother," Rory explained. "Wow, does it sound weird to call her that. I barely even know her. I think I've seen her maybe three times in my life."

"She invited you to dinner at her house?" Emily asked in surprise, eyebrows raised. She wondered if her talk with Francine earlier in the week had prompted it.

"Yeah, I was surprised too. She's never taken an interest in my life before, but at dinner she was very chatty, asking me about Yale and if I had a boyfriend and all other aspects of my life."

"So weird," Lorelai said.

"This was _The X-Files _type of weird. When I went to the bathroom, I half expected to find her body shoved in the bathtub with her eyes all burned out and then go back to the table to find out she'd morphed into Brian Thompson."

"Brian Thompson?" Emily questioned.

"Big ugly guy who played the alien bounty hunter on _The X-Files_," Luke answered. "He's known for doing guest spots as bad guys on TV shows. He was also on _Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Charmed, _and _Star Trek: Deep Space Nine._"

"That's my big sci-fi geek," Lorelai said as she patted his leg affectionately.

"Hey, you're about to marry me, so what does that say about you?" He challenged her.

"I think it's cute that you like all those weird and crazy shows, although technically _Buffy _and _Charmed_ aren't actually sci-fi."

"They're both about the supernatural, so they're pretty close," Rory said.

"Plus, _Buffy _did an episode where they had a demon arrive in a meteor arrive from outer space and they had the ones with the robots, both kind of science-fiction-y themes," April added.

"I have no idea what any of you are talking about," Emily said with a shake of her head then changed the subject. "So, what do you have planned for April's birthday party tomorrow?"

"You're just gonna have to wait until tomorrow to find out, though I have to say I have thrown some rockin' pre-teen parties in my time. Rory's birthday scavenger hunt of 1998 is still talked about in hushed, reverent tones."

"Isn't that the one where all the kids ended up at Taylor's at eleven o'clock at night, stealing stuff out of the fridge?"Luke asked.

"Like you have any room to talk, Luke," Rory said. "You were the one who t.p.'d Taylor's house that night."

"What?"

"With his own toilet paper."

"You're crazy! That wasn't me," he protested.

"Luke, it was too!" Lorelai argued

"You toilet papered Taylor's house?" Emily asked with a bemused smile.

"Yes, he did. I'll never forget it. A posse of twelve year old girls running around and they were better behaved than the thirty-one year old man who was helping me chaperone."

"You thought it was funny at the time," Luke said with a mischievous twinkle in his eye.

"Well, sure, it's Taylor. Ooh, I just had an idea! Maybe that's what we can do to wrap up April's party tomorrow night. That would give Taylor some kind of payback for the whole Nicole blackmail debacle."

"You wanna t.p. Taylor's house?"

"Why not?"

"As much fun as that sounds, I think we'd better not at least until after next week's town meeting when he's supposed to decide whether or not he'll allow us to keep a Stars Hollow address when we move."

"Party pooper," Lorelai grumbled as the maid walked into the room and announced that it was time for dinner.

"Thank you, Miranda," Emily said as they all began to make their way to the dining room.

"So, Rory," Richard began as he took his seat. "How are things at Yale?"

"Good. Things are good. We put out the last issue of the paper for the year on Monday, I've got one more week of classes then I have finals the following week, then I'm home for the summer."

"That's so not fair," April pouted mockingly as Miranda, the maid of the week brought in the salads. "You're out of school for the summer a whole month before I am."

"You'll have that when you go to college too," Rory said.

"But that's five years away. I'm only in seventh grade now."

"Believe me I'd trade you right now in a heartbeat. Yale is a tough school and I am not looking forward to finals."

"I'm sure you'll do fine, Rory," Richard said reassuringly. "You're a very bright young woman."

"Thanks, Grandpa."

"So is your future step-sister from what I hear," he said with a smile at April.

April beamed and said,"Thank you, Mr. Gilmore."

"Now, April, you're going to be a part of our family in less than a month," Emily said. "Mr. and Mrs. Gilmore is much too formal for family. While I wouldn't expect you to call us Grandma and Grandpa since you barely know us, you must at least call us Emily and Richard.

"Ok," she said with a smile as Luke and Lorelai also smiled at this.

"You know that's funny you say that," Rory said. "I still have no idea what to call my dad's mom. Mrs. Hayden seems too formal, but I don't feel comfortable calling her Grandma because I don't really know her and calling her by her first name seems a little disrespectful."

"But you and your dad are getting along better, right?"Luke asked. He didn't like the man, but he didn't want Rory to miss out on having a relationship with her father.

"Yeah, he apologized for the whole drunken toast deal at Lane's wedding."

"Good."

"He called on Wednesday night after we dropped April off and apologized to us, too," Lorelai added.

"He did?"Rory asked.

"Yep, it was a little awkward because he called at kind of an inopportune time," she said with a meaningful glance at Luke, "but it was nice that he did it all the same."

"What kind of inopportune time?"Emily questioned.

"Trust me, Mom. You don't want to know."

"Lorelai…"Luke said warningly.

"What? Were you guys doing something dirty at the time?" Rory teased.

"No," Luke said blushing furiously.

"Not yet, anyway," Lorelai teased him as she stroked his thigh under the table.

"Hey, none of that at the dinner table," April scolded.

"I quite agree. This is not the proper time and place," Richard agreed remembering the encounter he'd walked in on a few days before.

"All I can say is that I'm glad my room is _far _away from yours."

"Amen, Sister," Rory said as she clinked her glass against April's.

"Your room?" Emily questioned. "Are you talking about at the new house?"

"No," April answered. "I'm talking about the room Dad and Lorelai set up for me in the house they live in now."

"April has her own room now? How did you manage that in that small house?"

"We cleaned out the attic and moved Jess' old furniture from the apartment into it, so April would at least have a space of her own until we get into the new house," Luke explained.

"Very sensible," Richard said. "You can hardly expect a college junior to share her room with a thirteen-year old."

"It was Lorelai's suggestion, actually. Since Anna agreed to let me start having weekend visits with April, it just made sense."

"I didn't realize that you were doing weekend visits," Emily said. "When did this happen?"

"This is the first weekend, Mom," Lorelai replied. "I was actually surprised that she was the one to bring it up since she'd said before that she wasn't comfortable with April spending the night at our place until we were married."

"I think the fact that I yelled at her about it might have had something to do with it,' April said.

"You yelled at your mother?" Emily asked in shock.

"Well, she was being so stubborn about the whole thing. I told her that it wasn't right that other kids with separated parents get to spend whole weekends with their dads and I don't. Then, she was all 'But you still don't know your dad all that well,' then I reminded her that that was her fault because she kept me from knowing who my dad was for the first twelve years of my life and asked her how I'm supposed to get to know my dad better if I don't get to spend any time with him."

"I think we made a lot of progress on our trip to Philly," Luke said.

"Yeah, the trip was great! I'm so glad you went with me."

"Good," he said with a smile. "I'm glad I went too."

"I'm glad you guys got a chance to spend some real father-daughter time together," Rory said to April. "It's kind of sad though that you know your dad about as well as I know mine and I've always known who my father was."

"He at least apologized for his behavior at Lane's wedding," Lorelai said. "That's something."

"I guess. Speaking of the wedding, I have pictures," she said reaching for her purse.

"Ooh, I wanna see," Lorelai said excitedly as she reached for the photos that her daughter had pulled out of her purse and started thumbing through them. "Hon, Look," she said as she showed one to Luke. "Don't Lane and Zach look adorable in this one?"

"Yeah," he said with a smile. "They look happy." He leaned closer to her to look at the pictures with her. "That's a good one of us. Who took that?"

"I did," Rory said. "You guys looked so sweet when you were dancing I wanted to capture the moment."

"May I see?" Emily asked.

"Sure," Lorelai said as she handed off the pictures she'd already looked at to her mother.

Emily looked at the first one of Lane and Zach. "Surely, that's not the same dress you were working on when I was at your house," she asked in surprise.

"Yep, it's the same one."

"Well, I must say you did a beautiful job on it."

"Thank you," Lorelai said with a smile at getting a very rare compliment from her overly-critical mother.

"Rory, can I get a copy of this one?" Emily asked her granddaughter as she held up the picture of Luke and Lorelai dancing. She studied it more closely and smiled at the happiness on her daughter's face at being held in her future husband's arms. It was quite obvious the way that they were looking at each other how in love they were with one another.

"Sure thing, Grandma," Rory answered.

Lorelai looked at the photo her mother had indicated and asked in surprise,"You want a picture of me and Luke dancing?"

"Why is that such a shock to you? You and Luke have been together for almost two years. You're going to be married very soon and I don't have one picture of the two of you together. Besides this is a lovely picture of you two. Is this in the town square?"

"Yeah," Luke answered. "That's actually the second wedding we've been to together in the square. We danced together for the first time in the square at my sister's wedding two years ago."

"Have you noticed that the only time we dance is at weddings?"Lorelai said to him.

"I guess I hadn't really thought about it."

"I didn't either until just now, but it's true. In all the time we've known each other, the only time we've been dancing is when there's a wedding going on. First there was Liz and T.J.'s wedding, then my parents' wedding and now Lane's."

"Well, I guarantee that we'll be doing some dancing at our wedding," he said with a smile.

"I'm just saying, how come we never went dancing on any of our dates?"

"You always wanted to go to the movies," he pointed out. "If you ever wanted to go dancing, all you had to do was say so."

Their conversation was interrupted by the maid clearing salad plates and bringing in dinner plates.

"I think it's time to put the pictures away," Emily said as she handed them back to Rory who put them back in her purse.

"So, Luke, how are things at the diner with you being one staff member short at the moment?" Richard asked.

"Fine," he answered. "It's a little weird not having Lane there, but I gave my part-time guys a few extra hours to pick up the slack while she's on her honeymoon."

"What are you going to do while you and Lorelai are on your honeymoon?"

"Well, Lane will be back by then and Caesar can run the place like he did while I was in Philly, though this time I'm going to make sure he knows not to mess with the menu."

"Still finding bananas in the fridge?" Rory asked jokingly.

"Did your mom tell you about that?"

"No, I heard about it from Miss Patty. She said she missed having her cold banana."

"The way Miss Patty is, she might not have been talking about an actual banana," Lorelai said with a smirk.

"Gross," April said.

"It's true, though," Luke said. "I can't even count how many husbands she's had now."

"Way too many," Lorelai agreed. "But I can assure you all, I only plan on having one," she added with a smile at Luke.

"Good to know," he said, smiling back at her. "I wish I could say that I'll only be married once."

"While we're on the subject, Luke, how did the business meeting go with your ex-wife?"Emily asked.

"It was pretty much as awkward as I expected it would be, but Taylor and I did manage to come to decent agreement. In a way, it was kind of good that Nicole and I at least cleared the air. We didn't exactly part on the best of terms. We talked a little after the meeting was over and it wasn't too bad. I mean, we've both moved on, she's happy, I'm happy. She's remarried and I'm getting remarried, so it turned out ok."

"It's so weird to me that you've been married before," April commented. "The way you and Lorelai are together, it's hard for me to imagine you being with anyone else."

"You do realize that the fact that you're here means that I had a relationship with your mom in the past, don't you?"

"Yeah, but that was more than thirteen years ago and you and Mom split up before I was even born. Plus you're not exactly Mom's type."

"Yeah, she proved that thirteen years ago," Luke muttered.

"So, you never had that childhood fantasy of having your parents together?" Rory asked.

"No. For that to happen, I would've had to know who my father was," April stated bluntly. She loved her mother but she was still angry with her for keeping her from her father for years.

"Hey, get out of my plate," Luke said to Lorelai as she speared a piece of roast beef from his plate with her fork.

"Lorelai, where are your manners?"Emily said.

"What? It's not like he's gonna eat it anyway," Lorelai said.

"Lorelai!'Luke said in an exasperated tone glaring at Lorelai.

"Don't you like roast beef, Luke?" Emily asked.

"Mom, in all the dinners Luke's had here, haven't you ever noticed that he doesn't eat red meat?"

'You don't?"Richard asked in surprise. "That's a little strange for a man who owns a burger joint."

"Luke, I'm sorry. I didn't know," Emily said apologetically realizing she still had a long way to go in her goal to get to know her future son-in-law. "I can have the cook fix you something else if you like."

"Thank you, Emily, but that's not necessary," Luke replied. "I do eat red meat on occasion. I just try to limit my intake of it for health reasons. I prefer turkey or chicken."

"Don't forget seafood," Lorelai added. "You make a mean crab amandine and you love fish."

"So, you're not a vegetarian, then?"Emily queried.

"No, I'm not," Luke reassured her.

"I just wondered. I noticed you seem to enjoy your vegetables."

"Something he has in common with his sadistic children here," Lorelai said. Luke smirked at her as he watched her serve herself another helping of baby carrots. "And don't give me that look," she said to him.

"I stand by what I said the other day," he said with a grin.

"What was that, Luke?" Rory asked.

"It's not important, Rory."

"He said that if he'd known getting me pregnant was the way to get me to eat healthier, he'd have done it years ago," Lorelai said grinning back at Luke.

"Lorelai!"

"Well, it's true. That's what you said when I was actually craving salad."

"Which is completely not normal for you," Luke said. "I usually have to bribe you to eat your vegetables."

"Those bribes are usually well worth it too," she said with a mischievous grin.

"Gross," Rory and April said in unison.

"Lorelai, honestly," her mother said. "Must you always be so crude?"

"I'm not," she protested. "You and the girls just assumed I was talking about something dirty. Luke sometimes offers to make me a special dessert if I agree to eat all my vegetables, like I'm a little kid or something."

"Sometimes you act like a little kid when it comes to eating vegetables." Luke said.

"Well, not right now. Our kids can't seem to get enough of them."

"So, other than the vegetable cravings, how have you been feeling, Lorelai?"Richard asked.

"Fine. The morning sickness isn't as severe as it was. I still have occasional bouts with it, but nothing like it was a few weeks ago."

"The doctor said it was a good thing too, because now she's gaining weight like she should," Luke added.

"Thanks for reminding me," Lorelai said. "It's bad enough that I already feel like a big fat ass without you rubbing it in my face."

"You don't look like you've gained any weight to me," April said.

"Well. Your father noticed," Lorelai replied.

"Mom, of course he's going to notice. He's the one you share a bedroom with," Rory pointed out. "It's only natural that he would be the first one to notice that kind of thing."

"I told her the same thing," Luke said. "I also told her that I think the changes are amazing and beautiful and she doesn't believe me."

"It just makes me sad that my perfect wedding dress that fit me perfectly when I bought it now has to be altered for me to even wear it."

"So what?"

"Just you wait until June 3rd when I'm walking down the aisle. You're gonna see this big blimp of a woman walking toward you and turn and run the other way."

"No, I won't. I've waited too long for our wedding day to get here. It's gonna take a whole lot more than that to scare me off." He looked at her and noticed her eyes filling up with tears again. He slipped from his chair and knelt beside her taking her hands in his and said, "What's going on here?"He asked softly.

Lorelai hung her head and said, "I guess everything's just now hitting me, how close we came to losing everything. I mean, we postponed the wedding…."

"What?"Emily said in shock.

"Hey," he said lifting her head forcing her to look him in the eye. "Look at me. Lorelai, I love you and I don't care if you gain three hundred pounds between now and them or if Mother Nature decides to unleash a freak blizzard on us, I am going to marry you on June 3rd come hell or high water."

"We'll see," she said sadly.

"No," he said firmly. "There is no 'we'll see' about it. We _are _getting married four weeks from tomorrow." He lifted one hand to brush the tears from her eyes. "The wedding is not postponed anymore. It's back on track and it's _going _to happen. Do you hear me?" She nodded and leaned into him and let the tears fall. He held her rubbing her back and letting her get it out. "This is all my fault. I never meant to hurt you and make you feel this way."

She pulled back from his embrace a little and said,"It's not all your fault. I should've told you how I felt sooner, but I was scared. The last time I pushed you when you said you needed more time, you broke up with me."

"I told you when we got back together that that was never my intention. I just needed time to process everything that happened at your parents' vow renewal with Christopher. It was never about not wanting to be with you and neither was postponing our wedding. That was about me and my own insecurities about being a father. Do you understand?"

She sniffled a little and said"Yeah, I get it." She lifted one hand from her lap and stroked his face. "Are you sure you want to marry this crazy weepy woman?"She asked with a chuckle.

"You bet I do," he replied with a smile as he placed a tender kiss on her lips. "Now, finish your dinner. Gotta keep the kids fed, remember?" She nodded as he stood and planted a kiss on the top of her head before returning to his seat.

Emily said there in silence dying to ask about the postponement of the wedding, but kept her questions to herself not wanting to upset Lorelai further and asked instead, "So, how are the wedding plans coming?"

Richard looked at his wife and admired her restraint, knowing that she must be burning with curiosity over the mention of postponing the wedding. "That's something I'd like to know as well. Is Taylor still giving you a hard time about the location?"

"No, he's not," Luke answered. "Especially since I threatened to go over his head to the town elders."

"I bet he loved that," Rory said. "He likes to think he has power over everyone in town. I wish I'd been there to see the look on his face when you said that. Stupid Taylor."

"Rory!" Emily said surprised at her granddaughter's attitude.

"Well, he is, Grandma. You should've seen what he did when Mom and Luke broke up. He started handing out these stupid pink and blue ribbons to try and force everybody in town to choose sides in the break-up. I mean, it was bad enough that they were both hurting over it without them having to see that every day."

"How awful," Emily said.

"The man clearly has issues," Richard said.

"Yeah, He could definitely benefit from some industrial-grade therapy," Luke agreed inciting a giggle from Lorelai.

"Like you said, though, the wedding is back on track," Lorelai said feeling a little better after her emotional outburst. "June 3rd we're getting married in the square whether Taylor likes it or not."

"And your plans are going well?" Emily probed.

"Yeah, pretty much everything is done. We're going on Monday to apply for our license, which reminds me, Hon," She said to Luke. "Before we go, you're going to have to dig out your divorce papers so you can prove you're not married to Nicole anymore."

"Yeah, don't remind me," Luke grumbled. "The whole town knows that I'm divorced but I still have to present legal documentation of it as if being divorced isn't bad enough by itself, I have to be reminded of it when we're trying to get married."

"It's the law, Babe. You can't get around it."

"I know. It just still bugs me. We're trying to start a new life together and it sucks that I have to be reminded of my past mistakes to make that happen."

"Hey, we both have a past. There's no getting around that, especially since there's evidence of both of our pasts sitting right across the table from us," she said gesturing to their daughters. "Who knows? If I'd married Max, I could be divorced now too."

"Maybe," he said. "But you at least had the sense not to marry someone you didn't really love."

"So, what else is left to be done?"Emily asked trying to steer the conversation back to the wedding plans as she could tell that the subject of his divorce was still a sore point with Luke, though she hadn't realized that he didn't love his ex-wife when he married her. This was just one more piece of the Luke Danes puzzle. She thought about Lorelai's suggestion that she try to have a real conversation with Luke, but she didn't know how well that would go over. He wasn't the most talkative of men and she had been exceptionally rude to him in the past, so she was worried that any questions she might ask him about himself would be taken the wrong way. She hadn't really thought about how much her cruel words over the past year and a half had hurt him until their argument outside the soda shop.

"Well, Sookie's got the menu all planned out," Lorelai said. "She's just waiting for the final head count from you."

"I have that since today was the cutoff date for the RSVPs. I'll make arrangements to get together with her later this week to discuss all of that with her and finalize the seating chart."

"You and Sookie are doing the seating chart together," Luke asked with a bemused expression. He couldn't imagine the two of them working together without a lot of bickering involved, since they both were very controlling when it came to event planning.

"It's the only thing that makes sense," Emily answered. "She doesn't know our family members and I don't really know that much about the residents of Stars Hollow, so we're cooperating on this so that people who should be seated together will be and those who should be kept apart will be kept apart. Now, Luke, we may need your help for your relatives."

"I highly doubt any of them will be coming."

"No, I have quite a few RSVPs from your extended family."

"You're kidding," he said in surprise shaking his head. "They wouldn't come to my uncle's funeral, but they're coming to our wedding. I don't get that."

"Perhaps they just want to help you celebrate your marriage. Anything in particular that I should know about any of them as far as the seating arrangements go?"

"If my nut job cousin Frannie is coming, keep her away from all the rest of them. Other than that, you're good."

"She is on the list. Who would you suggest seating her with?"

"You should be safe if you stick her with Miss Patty and Babette. They always liked her when nobody else did."

"Ok, I'll make a note of that," Emily said grateful for his input. As little as she knew about Luke, she knew even less about his family.

"I still can't believe any of them are coming. Most of them haven't set foot in Stars Hollow in years and none of them have ever met Lorelai."

"I'll get to meet them at the wedding," Lorelai said.

"That'll be a treat for you," he said sardonically.

"Hey, you're gonna have to put up with my cousin Marilyn and my aunt Totsie."

"But I've at least met them. I guarantee once you meet my cousins, you're gonna be the one wanting to run for the hills."

"If you can deal with my family, I can deal with yours. None of them can be more of a challenge than T.J. right?"

Luke laughed and said,"I guess you're right."

The family finished dinner and dessert chatting lightly about wedding plans and the remodeling plans for the new house without a lot less drama than the previous dinner they'd all had together. While they would never all agree on everything, they were making definite progress toward understanding each other.


	41. Chapter 41

Luke and Lorelai were lying in bed cuddled up together Lorelai using him as a pillow that night after watching a late movie with their daughters discussing the events of the week and the relative calm at dinner.

"So, you seemed surprised that your family's actually coming to our wedding," Lorelai said.

"Yeah," he said. "None of them would come for Louie's funeral. I just don't get why they're so interested in coming to our wedding."

"Well, a wedding is completely different from a funeral, at least for most people," she snickered. "Funeral's are all depressing and weddings are usually fun except for my mother's type of wedding."

"I shudder to think what your mother's going to think of my family."

"Just wait until she meets T.J. That oughtta be entertaining all by itself."

Luke laughed and said, "I'd love to see how that meeting's gonna go down. Champagne-sipping ballet-loving Emily Gilmore meets beer-guzzling monster-truck-loving T.J."

Lorelai laughed at the imagery Luke's comments created and said,"Oh my God. Can you imagine my mother going to see monster trucks? Talk about two worlds colliding,"

Luke laughed at this and planted a kiss on the top of her head. "No kidding," he said. Their light-hearted conversation was interrupted by the sound of loud music coming from the direction of April's room.

"The joys of having a teenager in the house," Lorelai commented.

"I'll go tell her to turn it down," he said while trying to extract himself from his fiancée's arms, but Lorelai stopped him.

"Let it go. It's her first night here. Let her enjoy it a little. We may even get to enjoy it a little ourselves."

"How do you figure," he said.

She planted a kiss on his lips in response then shifted to stretch her body atop his and looked longingly into his eyes. "Think about it, Hon. The blaring music will cover up any other noises that might be created in the house," she said with a suggestive grin as she leaned down pressing herself more firmly against him and began nuzzling his neck.

Luke sighed and reveled in the feeling of her lips on his skin, but was a little uneasy about the situation. "Lorelai, maybe we shouldn't…"he said.

She pulled back and looked at him. "Why not? We locked the door this time, so we don't have to worry about any interruptions."

"I know, but it's a little weird with April in the house. Blaring music or not, I don't want to take a chance on her hearing something she shouldn't and her mother going berserk if she finds out we were having sex while she was here."

"You have no problem doing it with Rory in the house," she pointed out.

"But that's different. Rory's an adult and as much as I hate, is sexually active herself."

"Not so much lately since the break-up with Logan."

"Yeah, but you know what I mean. It's different with Rory here, although I'm still kind of weirded out about the fact that she walked in on us last weekend."

"I thought we all agreed to move past that and forget it ever happened."

"We did and I'm on my way to being over it, but I don't want that kind of weirdness with April. She's only thirteen."

"Luke, it's not like I was planning on jumping you in front of her. Besides the fact that she knows you knocked me up is evidence that we're sleeping together. Isn't that what she told her mother to talk her into these weekend visits in the first place?"

"Yes, but still…"

"So, you don't want to? You don't want me?"She said looking a little hurt.

"That's not what I said, Lorelai. You know I want you. I always have. I'm just saying with April here it's better to be safe than sorry. I don't want to scar the poor girl for life especially as loud as I know you can get," he said with a chuckle trying to erase the hurt look from her eyes.

"What if I promise to be really, really quiet," she suggested as went back to nibbling at his neck.

"Impossible," he said. "You're never quiet. You've got to be the biggest chatterbox I've ever met. " He smiled a little at her persistence. It warmed his heart to know that after all he'd put her through over the past few months that she still wanted him in every way.

"What happened to your theory, that there's nothing like some good lovin' to shut a person up?"She teased as she placed feather-light kisses along his neck.

"I've learned since then, that _nothing _shuts you up completely. You even sometimes talk in your sleep," he said with a chuckle. He knew she'd win in the end. She knew just how to drive him crazy. She'd slipped her hand under his tee and was stroking his chest playing with the wiry curls there while her mouth continued to work its magic on his neck.

"Hey, maybe I should have gone out with Kirk. At least he's always been nice to me," she teased as she resumed her task.

"How long do you think that would've lasted?"He said with a sigh as he responded to her touch, pulling her tight against him.

"Probably just until he wanted me to meet his mother or until he had one of his night terrors," she joked.

"Don't get me started on Kirk and his night terrors. I was the one who had to chase his naked ass all over town the night of the test run."

"Do you ever wonder what would've happened with us that night if he hadn't interrupted us?"

"I've thought about it," he said.

"And?"

"It doesn't really matter. We didn't get the opportunity to find out."

"Do you think we'd have slept together that night? I know I was definitely thinking about it after those incredible kisses," she said as she kissed him and coaxed him into opening his mouth and brushed her tongue against his. She pulled back and gazed at him desire burning her eyes. "You can't tell me you didn't think about it too. I mean, when spent the night together on our first official date."

"I'm a guy. Of course I thought about it. Hell, I fantasized about making love to you many times even before that night. I'll tell you something though, when we did finally make love, it was well worth the wait and much better than the fantasy."

"Yet you don't want me fulfilling your fantasy tonight?"

"I didn't say I didn't want to. I love making love to you, but I just don't want to have this be an issue with April."

"I get that, but we are going to be married soon and if this weekend goes well, Anna will probably allow more weekend visits. Are you sure you want to be a monk every time she's here?"She allowed her hand to drift lower brushing against the waistband of his sweatpants just slightly above the hidden treasure beneath them, knowing it would drive him crazy in anticipation until she touched him where she knew he wanted to be touched.

"Lorelai," he growled pleading with her as she mercilessly teased him running her hand across his hip and thigh but still not reaching for the goods.

"Is that a yes," she asked smiling in triumph as she returned to neck.

"God, yes," he groaned in frustration knowing without a doubt that he was helpless against her. His arms tightened around her, crushing her to his chest as he reached for the back of her head pulling her mouth to his and kissing her fiercely.

"That's my boy," she said with a smug grin on her face satisfied in the knowledge that she'd won.

"Don't get cocky," he warned.

"Dirty," She said with a giggle. "That's your department anyway." She added as she rewarded him by slipping her hand inside his pants at last and giving him what he wanted, what they both wanted.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Rory and April sat on the bed in April's room talking and laughing as they looked at pictures and blasted music on the small boom box that Rory had lent her future step-sister. It had started with April wanting to see the pictures from Lane's wedding and progressed to Rory bringing up a box of old photos from her childhood. "Ok, if I show you this next one, you have to promise me that it stays just between us," Rory said. "Your dad would kill me if he knew I still had this one, because it's full of mocking potential."

"I think I'd have to see it before making a promise like that," April replied with a grin. "If it's that mockable, I may need it for future ammo."

"I take it back. You _are _the wicked step-sister," Rory said with a giggle.

"Hey, I'm just saying, you've known my dad a lot longer than I have, so you've got more stories that could be used for blackmail purposes than I do."

"I'm sorry. Is this weird for you? That your dad's been like a dad to me when you didn't even know him."

"It was, at first," she admitted. "I was a little jealous of you because you've had this whole life with my dad when he didn't even know I existed. But that's not your fault. It's good that you had him when your dad wasn't around and he's trying so hard to be a good dad to me now that he does know. Is it weird for you? You must feel like I'm taking away the only real dad you've ever known."

"Wow, confession time," Rory said with a sigh. "I admit it. I _was_ jealous of you too. Luke's always been like a dad to me and even though I'm all grown up and on my own, I still felt like now that he has you he didn't need me anymore. You're his flesh and blood daughter and I'm just a substitute, but he and I talked about it and I realized that I was being a little childish. Luke's a good guy with a big heart and he's got more than enough love for both of us and the new babies."

"Yeah, he _is _a good guy," April agreed with a smile. "Now, show me this blackmail-worthy picture."

"Ok, this is from my sixteenth birthday party. When the party started winding down, Mom and I decided to start a food fight and your dad kinda got caught in the middle of it." She handed the picture in question to April who howled with laughter when she saw the photo of her dad wearing half of Rory's birthday cake.

"Oh my God," she said having trouble breathing because she was laughing so hard. "No wonder he wouldn't want you to have this."

"I don't think he even knows it was taken. I kinda snuck up on him with the camera," Rory said joining April in her laughter.

"You got any other goodies in that box I should know about?"

"I've got a bunch of goodies in here." She rummaged through the box and plucked another picture from it. "Ooh, I got it! This one was taken the Christmas before last. It was the first Christmas Luke spent with us after he and Mom started dating and he was helping us decorate. So, of course we had to get a little silly with it."

April snickered as she looked at the photo depicting Luke and Lorelai covered in more tinsel than the tree. "This is a good one," she commented as she noticed how happy they seemed to be. April glanced into the box. "Wow, you've got a lot of pictures."

"I like proof, ok?"

"I get it. My mom's a huge picture taker. I'm so glad she let me stay the whole weekend. We wouldn't have gotten to do this if she hadn't."

"I'm glad too," Rory said with a smile wondering why she'd ever felt threatened by April. The younger girl was only trying to do what Rory still had yet to accomplish with her own father. "So, you wanna see a picture of your dad the night he t.p.'d Taylor's house?" She giggled a little as she remembered the conversation during drinks tonight at her grandparents' house and the shocked expression on Emily Gilmore's face.

"Absolutely," April said with a laugh glad that she and Rory were getting along now that the tension and jealousy between them had dissipated.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Luke and Lorelai lay blissfully wrapped in each other's arms both with giddy smiles plastered on their faces. "I'm glad I let you talk me into this," Luke said and kissed his bride-to-be gently.

"You know me. I can be _very _persuasive when I want something bad enough."

"I know that all too well," he said and sighed contentedly. "I definitely needed that after dinner with your parents."

"You were right, though; it wasn't that bad this time. I think they've finally really accepted you as a member of the family."

"I'm glad. I don't want to be the cause of more tension between you and your parents."

"Speaking of which, I think it's time for one of us to go upstairs and do the parent thing," Lorelai said pointing upward indicating the loud music still coming from April's room."It's getting late and we've got neighbors."

"I'm on it," he said reluctantly not wanting to leave the comfort of his fiancée's arms, but knowing that it had to be done. He supposed that it was all part of the whole fatherhood gig. He slipped out of bed and pulled on his discarded clothing before heading up the stairs. He paused in the doorway of his daughter's room and smiled as he saw his girls laughing and chattering together, both with their cell phones out. April's phone went off and both of them looked at the screen and giggled.

"I've so got a response for that," Rory said and began texting furiously and showed April the message before hitting the send button with a giggle.

Luke entered the room shaking his head and said, "What the hell are you two doing? Please, don't tell me you're sitting there texting each other when you're sitting there side by side."

"What if we were?"April said challengingly with a mile-wide grin on her face.

"That would just be sick," Luke groused.

"Relax," Rory said. "We're not texting each other. That would be a little nutty. We've been texting Jess." She held up her Sidekick as if to demonstrate.

"Jess, huh?"Luke said with a wary look at Rory.

"Yes, he gave me his cell number when he was here last weekend."

"So, you two have been talking? He couldn't help but be concerned about the situation. He had hoped that his nephew would have listened to him and given Rory some space.

"Yeah, we've been talking. We're friends, Luke. And just so you know, I asked him for his number so we could keep in touch." Her cell phone chimed and she read the newest message and showed it to April who burst out laughing.

"Well, I think it's time to say good-night to Jess, Girls," he said.

"Come on, Dad," April protested.

"Yeah, Come on, _Dad,_" Rory mimicked April as she sent a final message to Jess.

"I mean it. It's way past my bedtime, so I know it's past yours. Now, turn the music off and get to bed," he said sternly turning to leave the room.

"Oh, hey, Dad, before you go, check out what Rory gave me," she said gesturing to the wall above her bed.

He glanced up and saw the Yale pennant she had pinned to the wall. "That's pretty cool," he said touched by Rory's thoughtfulness. He was glad to see that Rory was accepting April being there. He really wanted everything to be ok between his two girls.

"I thought she could use something to decorate her room with, but I made it clear that's all she's getting off my Yale wall."

"That's fine. We're gonna be there Sunday anyway. I'll just get my own stuff there with my birthday money from my uncle," she said sticking her tongue out. Rory responded by doing the same.

"Ok, Ladies, enough! Bed, both of you!"

"Hey, I'm a grown up," Rory pouted in mock annoyance. "You're not the boss of me!"

"Wanna bet? I'm bigger than you are," he said with a smile.

"That's such a dad thing to say," Rory replied mirthfully. When she saw that he wasn't going to back down, she rose, walked to the boom box and turned it off. "Fine, I'm going. Good-night, April. Good-night, Daddy Luke." She gave Luke a quick kiss on the cheek and made her way to her own room downstairs.

Luke smiled as he watched her go then turned to April. "All right. You too, Kid. Lights out."

"Yeah, yeah," April grumbled as she moved her cell phone to her night stand and crawled into bed. Luke knelt beside her bed, pulled the covers over her and kissed her on the forehead. She looked up at him and said with a smile, "You do realize that I'm plenty old enough to tuck myself in, right?"

"Yeah, but I never got to do this with you, so can you just indulge your old man for tonight?"

"I didn't say I didn't like it," she said as she sat up slightly and kissed his scruffy cheek. "Good-night, Dad."

"Good-night, Kid," He said with a smile as he flipped off the light and went to rejoin Lorelai in their room.

"Well, don't you look like the cat that swallowed the canary," she commented as he walked in. "And I didn't think you could look any more full of yourself than you did a few minutes ago when you were having your dirty way with me."

"I think you've got that backwards," he said with a grin as he slipped in bed next to her. "If I recall, you were the one having your dirty way with me."

"I didn't hear you complaining at the time," she retorted as she snuggled into the warmth of his body. "So, you wanna tell me what's got you grinning bigger than the Cheshire cat?"

"I'm just happy," he said simply as placed a gentle kiss on her lips and laid his hand on his unborn children. "Now, let's get some sleep."

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Late the following morning, after breakfast was done, Luke and Lorelai were busily decorating for April's party that afternoon. Lorelai was surprised by how much Luke seemed to be enjoying himself. She smiled at him and said, "Look at you embracing the whole daddy thing. I never thought I'd see the day when you'd willingly hang streamers."

"Shut up," he groused good-naturedly.

"You're nothing but a big softy. I knew it all along," she teased.

"Hey, you know what else these are good for?" he said as he looped the streamer he was holding around her waist and used it to pull her closer just as the doorbell rang. "Come on in," he called as he planted a kiss on her lips.

"After the party, we may have to find even more uses for these," she whispered suggestively as her parents walked in the door.

"What's going on here?"Emily asked with a wry smile.

"Busted," Lorelai said as she extracted herself from the streamer. "I bet you thought your days of getting caught making out by your woman's parents were over," she said to Luke with a giggle.

"Jeez," Luke said blushing slightly. "Feel free to ignore her," he told the Gilmores. "We weren't making out."

"Well, we would've been if we'd been alone a couple of minutes longer," she said unable to resist teasing him.

"Man," he said turning a deeper shade of red as he shook his head and returned to his task of hanging streamers for his daughter's party.

"So, the girls aren't here?"Emily asked looking around the room.

"No, they went to the bookstore, so Rory could let April pick out a gift from her," Lorelai answered. "Which was giving a little grown-up alone time," she added with a devilish grin aimed at Luke.

"Would you stop," he said blushing again with a sheepish glance at his future in-laws hoping that they weren't thinking that he was some kind of pervert.

"There's no need to be nervous, Luke," Richard said with a hearty chuckle at Luke's embarrassment. "It's not as if Lorelai's still sixteen and we caught you sneaking into her room or something. We're well aware of the fact that the two of you live together. We did help you move in here, after all."

"Yeah, I was blown away by that," Lorelai said. "I never thought I'd see the day when my parents would willingly help me shack up with a guy."

"Hey, maybe you should use some of that hot air to blow up the rest of the balloons," Luke suggested with a chuckle.

"Hey!" she said swatting him playfully on the butt. "I'll have you know that with my verbal sparring skills would make me a valuable asset to any debate team."

"Yeah, what are you gonna' do? Talk the other team in circles until they get dizzy and pass out?"He quipped.

"If that's what it takes to win," she fired back.

Emily watched the playful banter between her daughter and the man she loved and couldn't believe that she'd ever thought that Luke was the wrong man for her. She observed the way that just a simple smile from him made her whole face light up. She'd been so blinded by her own pre-conceived notions of what a proper husband should be that she had failed to notice that the perfect mate for Lorelai had been there all along. Sure, she'd commented several times over the years about the obvious sexual attraction between the two of them, but this was so much more than that. They clearly connected on a much deeper level. "So, where should we put this?" she asked, holding up a gift bag.

"We've already got a present pile started on the coffee table, "Lorelai answered as she returned to blowing up balloons.

"You guys got April a gift?" Luke questioned in surprise.

"Of course, we did," Emily said a little affronted that Luke had thought they'd show up empty-handed. "You don't show up to a birthday party without bringing a gift, especially a _family_ birthday party. You should know that we have better manners than that."

"I know that, Emily," he said smiling a little at her emphasis on the word 'family'. "I was just a little surprised that you thought of my kid that way."

"Well, I don't know why," Emily said impatiently as she set April's gift on the table with the others. "We've done our best to be supportive of this whole situation. Besides, she's a lovely young lady with a sharp mind who fits right in with this, how did she put it, 'crazy, messed-up family.'"

Luke laughed and said, "She's got quite the mouth on her for only thirteen years old."

"There's nothing wrong with that," Richard said. "A young woman should never be afraid to speak her mind, ever if her opinions differ from others." He recalled the lively debate they'd had over Ayn Rand a few weeks ago and smiled. She was definitely a bright, opinionated girl. They were interrupted by a loud bang as the front door swung inward.

"Help, help, help," Sookie called out, her arms laden with disposable serving dishes. Luke dropped what he was doing and rushed to the door, relieving her of her burden.

"Sookie, what the hell is all this stuff?"He asked.

"Food, for the party," she answered as if he should know.

"I thought I told you I was handling the food for the party," he said a little irritated as he carried the food into the kitchen with Sookie hot on his heels. Lorelai followed knowing that there was about to be a lively debate and she didn't want to miss out on the entertainment.

"I know, but I figured you can never have too much food at a party, so I just thought I'd help out."

"Help out? This looks like more than helping out. Helping out is brining a side dish or a casserole. This, on the other hand, looks like you're trying to feed an army." Luke was a little annoyed. He liked Sookie, but he didn't want her taking over his kitchen.

"Is that the cake?" She said with a grimace with a gesture toward the large carrot cake in the center of the kitchen table.

"No, it's a Buick," Luke snapped. "Of course it's the cake. What the hell does it look like?"

"You made a carrot cake for a birthday party?"She asked dubiously.

"Yes! It's what April wanted. It's her favorite and it _is _her party."

"But carrot cake for a birthday party is just so blah." She said with a disgusted look on her face. "There are so many more fabulous choices out there."

"I don't do fabulous; in fact I don't even say the word fabulous."

"For a guy who doesn't say fabulous, that's kinda funny seeing as how you just said it twice in one sentence." Luke glared at her, but she continues on. "Now, we've got to do something about this cake. I've got some amazing recipes that would be so much better than plain old carrot cake."

"Hey, I didn't bitch about the kind of cake you served on your brat kid's birthday last November, when I got dragged to his party."

"But I at least did something a little more creative than carrot cake."

"_My _kid didn't want something more creative and I doubt yours did either. Davey's two. All he did with the cake was smash it in his face anyway. He ended up wearing more of it than he ate." Lorelai giggled at the memory of Davey's birthday party and how Luke had patiently sat through the entire thing even when Davey had started flinging the aforementioned cake everywhere, nailing Luke with it.

"Well, I hope you at least used softened butter in the frosting instead of melted, 'cause you know cream cheese frosting is a little tricky. If you use melted butter, it gets too runny."

"Does it _look_ too runny to you?"He snapped gesturing impatiently at the cake.

"No, not yet, but with cream cheese frosting, it could be dripping off the cake by the end of the day if you didn't do it right," she said critically.

"That's it! Out," he said glowering at her and pointing to the doorway where Lorelai was watching their argument with a bemused smile on her face.

"But I was invited to the party," Sookie protested.

"Not out of the house. Out of the kitchen." He clarified.

"Come on, Luke," she whined.

Luke reached for a dish towel and approached her menacingly with it. "I mean it, Sookie, out of my kitchen! When I want your opinion on cooking, I'll ask for it," he said as she reluctantly turned and he swatted at her retreating back with the towel chasing her out of the kitchen causing Lorelai to howl with laughter.

"Hey, I'm going. I'm going," Sookie said in surrender.

Luke followed her and stood in the doorway of the kitchen protecting his domain before sternly adding, "And stay out!"

"Fine! Whatever, but don't blame me if that cake's less than edible by the time we're ready to serve it."

"Sookie, I used the same recipe I've been using in the diner for years and it's never failed me yet."

"The diner's one thing, but this is your kid's birthday party," Sookie protested further.

"That's right, Sookie. _My _kid, not yours. You can serve whatever kind of fluffy, super-sweet, tooth-rotting confection you want when it's your kid's party we're talking about, but this is my kid's party and this is what she wants."

"Man, you're crabby," she said. "I was just trying to give you some helpful advice."

"Come on, Sook," Lorelai said. "You get the same way when it's your kitchen in question and you know it. When Luke subbed for you at the inn while you were on maternity leave, you badgered him non-stop."

"Yeah, well, he was screwing up my duck sauce!"

"I did _not _screw up your damn duck sauce!"Luke said hotly. "I got a lot of compliments on that sauce!" Richard and Emily watched the cooking debate between Luke and Sookie silently with different reactions. Richard looked on in amusement, while Emily looked horrified. Lorelai had told them that the two of them often argued over their differences of opinion when it came to food, but she didn't realize that it could get so heated.

"And the goat cheese in the fennel salad. What the hell was that about?"She said pointing an accusing finger at Luke.

"The goat cheese worked well in the fennel salad! Your guests liked it!"

"Ooh, and the walnuts in the béchamel," Sookie continued ignoring Luke's last response.

"For the last time, I did _not _put any damn walnuts in the damn béchamel!"

"You did too! I _know _I tasted walnuts!"

"You wouldn't have tasted anything if you'd been home in bed where you were supposed to be."

"Ha! So, you admit it! You _did _add walnuts to the béchamel!"

"You're insane!"He bellowed.

"No, what's insane is putting goat cheese in the fennel salad," she countered.

"Sookie, that was more than a year ago! Why are you still obsessing over this? Can't you just let it go?"

"No, that was _my_ damn kitchen and you messed it all up!"

"I left your kitchen exactly the way I found it and by the way, I don't remember you complaining when you were begging me to tell you what was in the damned lamb chops, which, just so you know, got rave reviews!"

"That is such a low blow and it's completely selfish of you not to share it with me when you had access to all my recipes that night!"

"_Please_, I know for a fact that that's nowhere near all your damn recipes. For example, I didn't see the lasagna recipe in there that I've been asking you about for years!"

"Well, you won't tell me the secret to your caramel sauce that you make for the turtle cheesecake at the diner."

"Maybe I would if you'd share you sour cream cheesecake recipe!"

"There's no way in hell I'm giving you that recipe! I invented that recipe myself!"

"Same thing with my caramel sauce!"

"You suck!'

"Right back at ya!"

After a moment of silence where Lorelai shifted her gaze between her two best friends like watching a ping-pong match, she said, "Are you two done?"

"Totally," Luke said as he tried to catch his breath.

"So, friends?"Sookie said.

"As long as you keep your nose out of my kitchen!"

"Deal," she said. "But can I just make one tiny suggestion?"

"No," Luke and Lorelai said together, then looked at each other and laughed.

"Fine," Sookie pouted and then said to him, "But just remember you're the one who asked me to cater your wedding, so I want no interference from you on the menu."

"Sookie, if I didn't trust you with the menu for the wedding, I wouldn't have asked you to do the catering. All I ask is that when you're in my kitchen whether it's here or at the diner, you keep your opinions to yourself. I've been cooking for more than thirty years and I think I've learned a little something in that time."

"But…"

"And don't give me that 'but I went to culinary school and you didn't' bit. I think sixteen years of running a successful restaurant speaks for itself."

"All right," she conceded with a pouty look on her face.

"So, Sookie," Lorelai said to change the subject before either of them could get fired up again. "Is Jackson going to be able to make it to the party?"

"No, it's just me. He's spending all day in the greenhouse tending to his tomatoes."

"Man, that sucks," Lorelai said. "I was hoping there'd be at least one other guy for Luke to hang with since this is gonna be kind of a girly party."

Emily glared at her daughter and said, "And I suppose your father doesn't count?" She wasn't sure how to take this, especially since her husband had made such an effort to get to know Luke, even going as far as to subject himself to ridicule after a day at the batting cages.

"Mom, I didn't mean it in that way. I only meant someone Luke's own age that he could hang with if the insane girliness of the party got to be too much for him," she said trying to cover her tracks. The truth was that while her dad had come a long way toward getting to know and accept her future husband, she really didn't think of her dad as a _guy_, someone that Luke could just do guy things with.

Emily merely scowled at Lorelai and pondered her statement. She felt like her daughter was still shutting them out in a way. She recalled the night of Rory's sixteenth birthday party in this very house when Richard had sat on the porch all night by himself not really interacting with anyone. While they didn't really have anything in common with the residents of Stars Hollow, she'd hoped that the way things had improved in their relationship with Lorelai lately and given the fact that Luke and Richard had spent some recent time getting to know one another better, that this party would be just one more step toward bridging the gap between their two very different worlds, but clearly Lorelai didn't want that much melding of the two. She dreaded the idea of being at yet another Stars Hollow event feeling like an outsider in her own daughter's life.

"Hey, I'm standing right here," Luke said. "Have you forgotten all of the very girly birthday parties of Rory's that I've been to where I was just fine without having another guy to hang with? Besides, I'll probably be spending most of my time in the kitchen keeping an eye on the food," he added with a meaningful glance at Sookie who made a face at him.

They all stood staring at one another for a moment until the tension in the room was broken by a voice at the still open front door. "Knock, knock," Liz's voice called out as she tentatively entered the room, birthday present in hand.

"Oh, Hey, Liz," Lorelai greeted her future sister-in-law warmly with a hug. "I'm so glad you could make it!"

"Like I'd miss my only niece's first birthday party," she said and then thought about how that sounded. "I mean, not that it's her _first _birthday. I know that she's more than one year old, but I mean, it's her first birthday that I've been around for. Oh, you know what I mean."

"I think we get it, Lizzie," Luke said.

"Although," she went on as if her brother hadn't spoken. "In a few months, she may not be my _only_ niece." She laid her hand on Lorelai's stomach and exclaimed in delight,"Oh my God, You've got a little bump already! Do you know what you're having yet! I _so _hope it's one of each. Then you'd have another little girl to do girly things with and Luke would have a boy to do guy things with and I'm just so damn happy for you two!" She hugged Lorelai fiercely. "With that little baby bump you've got going on, you're gonna be showing before you know it!" Lorelai whimpered slightly as Liz commented on the weight gain that she'd been trying so hard to hide in the wrap dress she was wearing. Luke, sensing her discomfort walked up behind her, gently placing his hands on her shoulders to console her. He knew how sensitive she was about the issue, but he hoped that would change once her hormones calmed down a little. "Oh, look at you two! So cute! I can't wait until your wedding day! I'm so glad you're gonna be my sister-in-law!" She gripped them both in a tight hug.

Luke extricated himself from his sister's firm grasp and asked in an effort to change the subject,"So, where's TJ?"

Liz's smile faded at the mention of her husband and said evasively,"Um…he's not coming…he's…uh…got…um…other stuff to do."

"What other stuff to do?"Luke asked apprehensively wondering what she was talking about after seeing the down-hearted look on her face. "I know he doesn't work on weekends, so where is he? Are things ok between the two of you?"

"He's just not here, ok?"She said covering her momentary weakness with a typical Liz Danes smile. "Don't worry so much, Big Brother. Everything's fine." She looked around the room. "I love what you've done with the place," she said to change the subject. "I haven't seen it since the remodel was finished." She was overcome by a wave of sadness when she thought of the fact that TJ had helped with the remodel, but covered by asking, "So, where do I put this?" She indicated the gift bag in her hand.

"On the coffee table," Luke answered with a look of concern at the pained expression he'd seen briefly flit across his sister's face wondering what was going on with her marriage and where TJ was.

"So, where _is_ the birthday girl?"Liz asked.

"At Andrew's with Rory, but they'll be back here soon," Lorelai answered. "We're just still getting the house ready for the party."

"Can I do anything to help?"

"You can help us finish setting up if you want," Luke suggested. "Actually, we've got more party stuff upstairs if you want to come help me bring it down here."

"Sure, anything to help my cute little niece," she said and followed Luke up the stairs.

"So, I'm guessing that was your future sister-in-law," Richard said with a bemused look on his face as he thought of how Emily had described her bubbly personality.

"Yeah, sorry about not introducing you," Lorelai replied. "I forgot that you hadn't met Liz yet." Her gaze drifted toward the stairs as she thought about the worried look she'd seen on Luke's face. She knew how protective he was of his little sister and how he'd always looked after her. She wondered what was up and if Liz was really ok, but she knew that Luke would fill her in on whatever was going on.

"So, what can I do to help," Sookie asked. "I need to do something, since I've been banished from the kitchen."

"We'd like to help too," Emily said. "That's why we got here early."

"There's plenty to do," Lorelai said as she shook off her nagging concerns and began assigning tasks to get the house ready for the party.

When they got to the bedroom, Luke immediately turned on his sister and said, "Ok, Liz, Out with it."

"Out with what," she said evasively as if she didn't know what he was talking about.

"Whatever's going on with you," he said edgily. "And don't tell me everything's ok. I know better."

"Everything _is _ok. Let me tell you my big, exciting news!"

"Uh-oh," Luke said with a sigh.

"It's not an uh-oh. It's good, unless you don't like babies, in which case it's not so good. But, I mean, you like babies, Right? I hope so, since you're about to have two of them around, three, if you count mine."

"You're pregnant?!"He said in shock. This was the last thing he'd expected.

"Oh, it was supposed to be a surprise. Who told you?"She asked dumbfounded.

"You just did."

"Wow, I blew my own surprise."

"That's great, Liz," He said with a smile, but the smile soon faded as he recalled the look he'd seen on her face downstairs. "It's great, right?

"Amazing, I am over the moon," she said beaming. I am gonna take care of myself this time, Big Brother. I'm gonna do all the healthy things for me I did not do last time I was pregnant, like not binge drink."

"Good plan. So, where's TJ? I mean, he must be thrilled about this," he said thinking of his own reaction when Lorelai had told him that he was going to be a father.

"Oh, he's gone," Liz answered nonchalantly.

"Gone? You mean gone out of town?"He asked hoping she didn't mean what he thought she meant.

"He's gone, the big 'gone out of my life.' So, what kind of food do you have prepped for the party? I'm starving."

"What?" Luke said ignoring her question. "Liz, no."

"So, I have to wait until the party to eat?"She said cluelessly.

"I mean, 'no, TJ can't be gone.' He's your husband."

"Since when does that keep guys from leaving?" She said as if it didn't matter that she would soon be facing her fourth divorce.

"He's left you?"Luke asked incredulously.

"He's left."

"How can you be so calm about this? You're so calm about this."

"Because I got my new come-what-may philosophy," she said as if that explained it all.

"Your what?"

"My philosophy. It's about accepting what comes your way, whatever it is. If a bus is heading right at you, let it come. If a piece of space junk comes hurtling down at you, let it come."

"Or you step out of the way," he suggested.

"You know, that's probably better, and when I said what I said now, it felt wrong."

"Did he know you were pregnant?" He couldn't imagine TJ abandoning his responsibility to her if he'd known.

"I'd just told him," she informed her brother.

"So he ran out on his wife and child?!" He was shocked. What kind of man did that? He'd thought TJ was better than that. Sure, he got on his nerves, but he thought that he really loved Liz.

"Luke, you're getting mad over nothing," she said trying to brush it off.

"It's not anything!"

"Well, I need you to stay calm, because right now it's all about the baby, and it's all good… _Really. _Come what may."

"All right, fine. Whatever. It's all good," he said as he stormed out of the room and down the stairs fuming over the situation and his sister's indifferent attitude about it.

Luke reached for his keys on the entry table as Lorelai hurried over to him and asked, "Where are you going, Hon?

"I am going to go murder my brother-in-law!" he growled.

"What? What the hell's going on?"

"Nothing a little homicide won't cure" he said abruptly.

"But the party…"

"I'll be back in plenty of time for the party. This won't take long, trust me," he said as he headed out the front door purposefully, determined to find TJ and give him a piece of his mind for walking out on his pregnant little sister. He didn't care that Liz was acting as if it didn't matter. There was no way in hell he was going to watch her struggle as a single mother again without at least trying to do something about it. He was so mad he didn't even notice the young man walking up the front steps as he walked down them. He simply brushed past him and got into his truck.

"Nice to see you, too, Uncle Luke," Jess said shaking his head as he walked through the open front door where everyone was staring silently at Luke's abrupt departure. "What's up with him?" he asked Lorelai as Emily eyed him warily.

"You got me," she answered, just as confused. "All I know is he said something about killing TJ before barreling out of here."

"Finally," Jess muttered. "I saw this coming from the moment she brought him home."

"You don't like your step-father?"Emily inquired as she looked Jess up and down, scrutinizing every detail of his appearance. At least he didn't have a black eye this time.

"He's ok, I guess, just a little weird," he said uncomfortable with the way Emily was staring at him. The last time he'd been in the same room with her was in her mausoleum-like home when he'd been coerced into making an appearance at the hellish Friday dinner.

"So, Jess, your uncle told us all about your new business venture," Richard said in an attempt to break the unbearable tension in the room. "How's that going?"

"Good," he said. "Not going broke, so that's a good thing."

"Indeed," Richard said. "It's always good when a business is in the black. So, you're making money?"

"Yeah, Not the kind of money you make, but it pays the bills," he said with a shrug.

"Hey, there's my brilliant boy," Liz said as she descended the stairs and greeted Jess with a hug, grinning broadly. "I didn't know you were gonna be here."

"I didn't either, but April texted me last night and invited me. I figured 'what the hell'. I wasn't doing anything today anyway and it'll give me some time to get to know my cousin a little better. Plus, I need to pick up my monkey suit for the wedding from the bridal shop."

"Are you sure this doesn't have anything to do with your soon-to-be step-cousin?"His mother asked with a knowing grin. They'd talked a little about the situation with Rory when he'd visited her the previous weekend after his tux fitting.

"No," he said stoically. "I mean, Rory and I have been talking more, but that's all there is to it." He sighed as he thought of Rory. He was glad that they'd resumed their friendship, but he wouldn't help but wish for more. He was following his uncle's advice though and not pushing her for more than she was ready for. It was nice just to reconnect with her and that she'd accepted the fact that he was going to be in Stars Hollow a lot in the near future because of the upcoming wedding. She'd even encouraged him last night to accept April's party invite before the texting had turned to book debates and general silliness. "So, what's up with you since I saw you last weekend? Lorelai here was telling me that Luke was on a mission to kill your husband."

"Uh-oh," she said. "I shouldn't have said anything to him about it. I knew he'd get all bent out of shape about all of this."

"All of what?" When she didn't answer, he asked, "Mom, what the hell is going on with you?"

"You don't need to worry about what's going on with me. I am one hundred percent a-ok. I wanna hear what's going on in your life. How's that little shop of yours? Ooh, and I wanna hear all about the new book you're working on."

"You're writing a new book?" Sookie asked.

"Um, yeah. It's still a work in progress, "he said. "I doubt that it will even get published. Right now, it's just kind of random scribbles. I'm focusing more on actually running the business, so writing has pretty much taken a backseat to that."

"That's a shame," Richard said. "I read your first novel. It was quite good."

"Thank you, Mr. Gilmore," Jess said with a slight blush. He was pleased by the compliment, but a little embarrassed at the same time. In hindsight he thought he could do better.

"You read his book?" Emily asked her husband in surprise.

"Yes, Rory lent me her copy and asked me to give it a chance. It was an excellent read for a short novel, especially for a first attempt."

"It was hardly my first attempt," Jess said. "I must have re-written it a thousand times before it got published and there are still things I'd change about it if I could go back and redo it." Eager to steer the subject away from himself, her turned back to his mother. "So, you wanna tell me why your brother is out hunting down your husband?"

"It's nothing," Liz replied.

"Mom…"

Liz sighed. "You're gonna get mad."

"I'm not gonna get mad unless you keep avoiding my question," he said.

"Well, You're…uh…gonna be a big brother," she said.

"You're pregnant?"Lorelai exclaimed in delight as she hugged her future sister-in-law. "That's so great, Liz. Congratulations!" She released her and stood there smiling.

Jess' eyed widened in surprise as the news sunk in. He looked from Liz to Lorelai and back to Liz and said," So, I'm gonna have a new sibling _and _two new cousins? What, are they slipping fertility drugs into the water in Stars Hollow?" He paused as he reflected on the look of pure fury etched on his uncle's face as he'd gone flying out the front door. "Is that why Luke flew out of here like a bat of hell to hunt down TJ, because he got you pregnant?"

"There's more to it than that. TJ left."

"What?! How could he just leave? God! I gotta hand it to you, Mom. You sure know how to pick the winners! I knew that chump was a loser from the start, just like my dad!"

"He is _not_ just like your dad and he's _not _a loser!"She cried vehemently, knowing that she was the one who'd driven him away. He hadn't wanted to go, but she'd chased him out. It was her own fault that she was going to be raising another kid alone.

"What the hell do you call a guy who walks out on his pregnant wife? I'd say that makes him a loser! They have a phrase for guys like him, deadbeat dad!"

"He's not a deadbeat dad!" Liz protested.

"Then, where the hell is he? Why the hell isn't he here for you now?" Jess couldn't believe that his flaky mother was defending her husband when he'd left her alone and pregnant.

"Jess, calm down," Luke said from the doorway a lot calmer than when he'd left after talking to TJ and finding out that his departure had nothing to do with the fact that he didn't want to accept responsibility for his kid and that it was Liz's own insecurities about being a mother that had driven him away. He then addressed his sister. "Liz, listen to me."

"I'm listening," she said a bit hesitantly.

"You are gonna be a great mother to this kid," He assured her.

"What?" She said once again acting clueless.

"You heard me. You're in the best shape you've ever been. You've got money. Jess turned out fine. Look at him," He said gesturing to Jess. "Look at your son! Your son turned out fine. He's doing great."

"Yeah, but…"

"Put your fears aside. I know you can do this."

"I'm scared," she said quietly.

"But you've got help. You've got a good man. He loves you. He's gonna be a great dad, if you let him. "

"If he'll forgive me," she said sadly knowing that she'd screwed up. Luke grabbed her by the arm and led her to where the front door still stood open and gestured outside, Liz looked out and saw her husband leaning casually against Luke's Chevy. "TJ." She said with a smile.

"He was too afraid to come inside," he said with a wistful smile recalling what TJ had just told him about his nutty sister throwing things at him.

"He's not wearing a jacket," she said in concern.

"I told him to bring a jacket."

"He's always forgetting his jacket," she commented.

"All right, he needs you; you need him. Now go to him. Make up," he said. When she hesitated he said, "Go on. He's waiting for you."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah," he confirmed. Liz hurried outside to apologize to her husband as Luke shook his head at his sister's craziness.

"That didn't take very long," Jess commented. "What happened to turn you attitude around so fast?"

"Well, knowing TJ, I figured he'd be in a bar and this being a small town, there are only so many bars that are open at eleven O'clock in the morning. I found him and talked to him and he told me that your whack-job mother was the one who threw him out, but I think they're gonna work it out."

"I'll say," Sookie said as she glanced out the door and saw Liz and TJ locked in a passionate embrace.

Jess followed her gaze and said, "Aw, jeez, I _so _didn't need to see that. He slammed the front door so he didn't have to watch anymore of his mother making out with her husband.

Luke laughed at his nephew's embarrassment and said to rest of the group, "Come on, let's finish getting set up here."

Three hours later, the party was in full swing, the living room full of giggly teenage girls who were delighting in their extreme makeovers, piling on the glitter and make-up. True to his prediction, Luke had mostly stayed in the kitchen, along with the other men at the party. He glanced into the living room every now and then, just enjoying watching his daughter having a good time and seeing Lorelai totally in her element interacting with the girls. Emily had even joined in, though not getting as wild with it as her daughter and her granddaughters.

"The party seems to be a big hit with the girls," Richard said.

"Yeah," Luke agreed. "Lorelai knows how to throw a party."

"And look at Liz," TJ commented. "She totally looks like Madonna with her hair all teased up like that. She is _so _hot, don't you guys think?"

Luke glowered at TJ, "She's my sister!" he exclaimed.

"And my mother," Jess added in disgust.

"So?" TJ said. "That don't mean she ain't a hottie! I am _so _getting some of that tonight."

"TJ!"Luke said in exasperation at his brother-in-law and his crudeness.

"I'm just saying…" He left the room to go hang out with his wife.

Luke growled in frustration as Lorelai walked into the kitchen carrying an empty bowl and said, "We need more chips in there."

"I'm on it," he said as reached into the cabinet for another bag of chips and dumped them into the bowl. He looked at Lorelai and her overly done-up hair and make-up and commented," You look like Pat Benatar."

"Is that good or bad?"She asked.

"Good," he said with a smile. "I always kind of had a thing for Pat Benatar." He planted a quick kiss to her lips.

"Mmmm…Hit me with your best shot, Baby," she said playfully as she leaned in for another kiss.

"That's it. I'm outta here," Jess said revolted by seeing his normally grumpy uncle getting so goopy and made his way to the living room to talk to Rory. "Hey, you feel like taking a walk?"

"Sure," she said as she gestured for him to follow her out the side door in the living room.

"I'm having a ball," she said. "What's been going on in the he-man woman-haters club in the kitchen?"

"A little too much innuendo about my mom from TJ," he said with a scowl.

"Yeah, I saw that they were engaged in another round of make-up necking in the foyer out of the sight of the girls."

"Then to top it off, there was a little too much sap from my uncle and your mom. I felt the need to escape."

"Completely understandable," Rory said with a smile. "But you do realize there's gonna be a whole lot more sap at their wedding in a few weeks."

"Yeah, I know. I mean, I'm glad they're happy. Uncle Luke's been a loner for way too long. It's good that he's got someone in his life that makes him disgustingly happy."

"I think he partially has you to blame for that," she said with a bright smile.

"How do you figure?"

"You're the one who gave him the kick in the ass that he needed to get things back together with her. I've been meaning to say thank you."

"For what?"

"For whatever you said to him that made him realize how much he was hurting my mom with his distancing himself from her."

"I didn't really do anything except stated the obvious," he said brushing off her gratitude.

"Well, maybe that was enough. They're so happy now and that makes me happy, so I wanted to let you know that I appreciate it." On impulse she reached out and hugged him to show him how much it meant to her that he was the one responsible for her mother's happiness. He smiled at the gesture and wrapped his arms around her hugging her back, lost in the feeling of having her in his arms again.

He pulled back a little but still kept his hands on her waist. "You're welcome," he said as he looked into her eyes.

Rory wanted to look away from the intensity of his gaze, but found herself unable to tear her eyes away. Instead she reached up and stroked the side of his face and kissed him lightly on the lips, testing the waters. That light touch was all the invitation he needed. He tightened his arms around her and pulled her closer, coaxing her mouth open with his. She responded by sliding her arms around his neck and allowing him full access to her mouth, reveling in the fiery kisses. She'd forgotten what a good kisser he was. She gasped as he tore his mouth from hers and lowered his head to rain kisses on her neck. She was lost in the moment until he whispered in her ear, "Let's go somewhere else."

She pulled away from him abruptly. "No," she managed to squeak out while trying to catch her breath. She leaned her back against the side of the house and looked down at her shoes unable to look him in the eye and said, "I can't."

"What the hell's going on here Rory? Thirty seconds ago, I thought you wanted this as much as I do." He sighed in frustration.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I don't know what I was thinking. I never meant for it to go that far."

"I don't know what you were thinking either! Do you have any kind of felling for me at all?"

"Yes! You know I do! I thought we were friends!"

"Well, I don't go around kissing my friends like that. Do you even care about my feelings?"

"Yes!"

"Then quit jerking me around! I'm not some toy for you to play with and I _won't _be just your rebound guy."

"Do you think that's what I want? I'm still trying to get my head together! I just broke up with someone a month ago!"

"I know that and I'm trying to give you the time you need to get over that, but _you _kissed _me _and now you're standing there acting all offended like I forced myself on you!"

"Well, I'm sorry you're not getting any tonight!" she said hotly. "Is that why you came here tonight? To get laid?"

"No! That's not why I came here! I came here to spend some time with my family! You know, I'd be lying if I said I didn't come to see you too! I miss you and I know I screwed things up with you before, but if you give me a chance, you'd see I'll do anything to make it up to you! You've known me for almost five years! Do you honestly think that I'm just after some quick, easy sex or that I'd ever think that you were that kind of girl?"

"No, I guess not," she said softly, realizing that he was right. "I'm just so messed up right now. With everything that happened with Logan, it was nice just to feel wanted again. I never meant to lead you on or take advantage of you. I'm so, so sorry."

"Yeah, well, I'm sorry if I pushed you."

"You didn't. I initiated it. This is all my fault. For what it's worth, you're still a really good kisser."

He chuckled a little at this and said, "Thanks. You're not so bad yourself." He leaned in and kissed her on the cheek. "There," he said. "That's more like a friend kiss. I think we should leave it at that for now."

"Thanks for understanding. I just need more time."

"I get it," he said with a sigh. "Take all the time you need."

"We should probably get back to the party," she said.

Richard looked at his son-in-law after Lorelai has returned to the living room with the refilled bowl of chips and said, "I have to say that was quite the noble thing you did today, getting your sister and her husband to talk things out."

"Well, that wasn't my intention when I left here, but Liz didn't tell me the whole story either. I was reading to tear him apart for abandoning his wife and child."

"I understand the feeling," he said. "I also wanted to compliment you on the way you comforted Lorelai last night at dinner when she had her little hormonal crying jag. That was very well played."

"Thanks, but it wasn't that big a deal. I was just trying to reassure her that I'm not going anywhere."

"So, the postponement of the wedding is a thing of the past?"

Luke sighed. He'd known after Lorelai dropping that bomb last night that it wouldn't be long before one of the Gilmores asked about it. He'd thought it would be Emily, but he was wrong. "Yeah, the postponement is over and everything's back on track, just like I told Lorelai last night."

"I don't mean to pry into your private life and you can feel free to tell me to butt out, but may I ask what happened?"

"It was all me. Finding out about April out of the blue kinda sent me into a tailspin. I was so freaked out by the whole idea that I had this kid out there that I'd never known about. I mean, Lorelai and I had talked about having kids together and I was looking forward to that, but it's an entirely different thing to plan on having kids and to prepare for it than to find out that you've already got one out there walking around. Nothing could have prepared me for that. Then there was all the wedding planning going on and the remodeling on the house and just everything was hitting me all at once and I needed some time to sort it all out."

"I imagine that must have been very overwhelming for you."

"It was," he admitted. "And I've never been much for leaning on anyone else. I should have in this case, but I was too stubbornly set in my own ways, that I shut out the people I love the most, including Lorelai. I'm not proud of that, but I'll do anything in my power not to make the same mistake again. I love Lorelai more than anything and I don't want to take the chance on ever losing her again."

"That's good," Richard said quietly wondering if he should ask the other question that was on his mind.

"What is it," Luke asked sensing that Richard had more he wanted to say.

"You might think I'm out of line for asking and I'll understand if you feel that way, but I can't help but wonder if the change in your wedding plans is due to Lorelai's pregnancy."

"You mean did I decide to go ahead with the wedding just because she's pregnant?"

"Yes," he said. He didn't want to think that that was the only reason that the wedding was going on as originally planned, but it seemed strange that he was not ready to get married at the time of the postponement and now he was.

"No," Luke assured his future father-in-law. "I didn't even know that Lorelai was pregnant until after I started making plans to get our wedding back on track. Like I told her last night, postponing our wedding was never about her or us or not wanting to live my life with her. It was all about my own stupid insecurities and how finding out about April changed things. It sounds stupid to think that she would care about this when she has a kid with someone else too, but a part of me thought that because of the fact that I wasn't there for April, that maybe she'd change her mind about wanting to have kids with me."

"That doesn't sound so stupid. I would think that would be a normal fear under the circumstances, though I couldn't say for sure. I've never been in that situation, thank God. I don't think Emily would have handled anywhere near as well as Lorelai has."

"Probably not," Luke said with a laugh. He looked at Richard and said, "You know that I love Lorelai, right?"

"Of course, I know that, Luke," the older man replied. "I see it every time you look at her."

"Good," Luke said with a smile as Jess walked back into the room. Luke looked at him suspiciously and demanded, "Where have you been?"

"Just talking to Roy," Jess answered.

"Just talking, huh?" Luke reached for a napkin and wiped Jess' face with it and then showed it to his nephew and indicated the lipstick smear on it. "This _so _isn't your color," he said.

"Look…"

"Don't 'Look' me! What happened to what we talked about last weekend about you giving her some space? Rory's been heartbroken very recently and she still needs time to recover from that or weren't you listening?"

"I _was _listening," Jess protested.

"Apparently not enough."

"Hey, _she _kissed _me, _not the other way around."

"That's really the story you're gonna stick to?"

"It's the truth. I didn't ask for it. I just went out there to talk to her. We've been talking on the phone and I just wanted to reconnect."

"I'd say you accomplished that," Luke groused.

"That's not what I meant. This wasn't intended, I swear. That's now what I came here for."

Luke was about to say something else when Rory walked into the room and said, "Hey, it's cake time! Let's get those candles lit and get it out there."

Luke noticed the flush in Rory's cheeks and caught the slightly embarrassed looks that passed between his nephew and his surrogate daughter and shook his head. "You got it," he said as he began to get the cake ready to be served. He wondered how this thing with the two of them was going to play out. Rory didn't seem to be upset or hurt so he relaxed a little, but he still intended to keep an eye on things.

The party continued with everyone in the living room, chatting and laughing while they sang "Happy Birthday" to April, ate the cake he'd prepared, which managed to actually get a nice compliment from Sookie, and watched as April gleefully opened her presents. When the party was over and all the kids had been picked up by their parents, Luke glance around the house and sighed.

"What a mess," he said with a frown as he began to clean up.

"Aw, just leave it for tomorrow," Lorelai said.

"Oscar," he said teasingly.

"Felix," she fired back with a laugh.

"Come on, the more we get done tonight, the less we have to do in the morning. He retrieved a trash bag from the kitchen and started tossing paper plates and cups into it assisted by Lorelai while Rory helped April carried her new stuff up to her room and Sookie began putting leftover food in the refrigerator. Richard and Emily approached Luke and Lorelai.

"Thank you so much for inviting us to the party," Emily said to both of them.

"Yes," Richard said. "And for including your mother in the makeover part, She reminds me of Lauren Bacall," He added to his daughter.

"Oh, Richard, stop," Emily said with an embarrassed smile.

"That's a good thing, My Dear," He said, sliding one arm around his wife's waist with a grin. "I always wanted to sleep with Lauren Bacall."

"Richard!" Emily exclaimed at the same time Lorelai groaned and said," Dad!"

"Way too much information, Dad," Lorelai said with a disgusted look on her face.

"Now, you know how it feels," Luke said with a chuckle. She often embarrassed him with innuendos about their sex life in front of other people.

"Do you need some help cleaning up," Emily asked in an effort to change the subject, though she took a small measure of satisfaction in the embarrassment on her daughter's face, a look she didn't see on her very often.

"Hey, Bro," Liz said to Luke before he could answer Emily. "We're gonna take off. I just wanted to say good-bye and thanks for everything. You're still my hero."

"Anytime, Sis," He said as he hugged her. "You take care of yourself. I mean it."

"I will," she said with a smile as she released him and placed her hand on her still flat stomach and followed her husband out the door.

"Thanks for the offer to help," Luke said turning back to Emily. "But you guys don't have to hang out and help clean up if you don't want to."

"I guess we'll go, then. I'll see you tomorrow, Lorelai," Emily said.

"Tomorrow?"Her daughter questioned.

"The shopping trip in New Haven," Emily said. "April invited me to go along. I told her I'd meet you there, unless you don't want me to go."

"No, you're welcome to come along. I just didn't know April had invited you. This shopping excursion is primarily for her, so whatever she wants to do is fine with me."

"Fine, I'll see you then." She started to head toward the front door then turned back to her daughter and said, "It was a lovely party. I think April really enjoyed herself."

"Thanks, Mom," Lorelai said pleased at the compliment.

"You're welcome. We should get going."

"Yes, it's getting late," Richard agreed. "Luke, I'll see you tomorrow at the country club."

"I'll be there," he said. Emily and Richard said good-bye and left. Luke sighed and said, "So, now that we're getting along with your parents decently, we're pretty much stuck with spending every weekend with them, now, aren't we?"

"Hey, you wanted everyone to get along," she pointed out. "Don't you remember how much fun it was when they just hated us?"

"But it's good, right? Our kids will have their grandparents around."

"Yeah, it's good. A little crazy, but good."

"Well, you should know crazy," he said with a laugh which earned him a well-placed smack on the butt. "Come on, let's get this place cleaned up." Luke smiled as he returned to the task at hand, thinking about how everything seemed to be working out. He was a little concerned about the Rory and Jess situation, but he realized that what was going to happen was going to happen and he was powerless to stop it. He just wanted both of them to be happy. He knew that if either of them needed his advice, they'd ask for it. He reflected on the events of the night and how happy his family had been. He hadn't been a huge part of the party, mostly watching from the sidelines, but he rejoiced in the fact that the women he loved had had a good time and he truly felt like he was a finally a part of a real, whole family for the first time since his mother had died when he was just a young boy. His smile grew wider as he thought of everything they had to look forward to.


	42. Chapter 42

AN: I want to apologize for my recent lack of updates. My job has been crazy and I've been putting in ungodly amounts of overtime which I will probably be doing at least until after Christmas. I also wanted to add a spoiler warning for the movie _The Life of David Gale_ for those of you who have never seen it. I've given away the entire ending of the movie, which considering the type of movie it is, kind of takes away from it, if you start watching it already knowing how it ends, but I needed to in order to move the story where I wanted it. Just wanted to give you fair warning.

* * *

Luke continued his cleaning up of the living room while Lorelai went to the kitchen to begin on the dishes. He shook his head at this. Lorelai wasn't much for housekeeping probably because of her years spent working as a maid, but she actually enjoyed washing dishes. Luke was lost in his thoughts when the doorbell rang. He went to answer it and was surprised to find Emily on the other side of the door.

"I'm sorry to disturb you, but I forgot my purse. I think I left it in the kitchen."

"You're not disturbing anything. We're just still cleaning up. Go on in," He said making room for her to get through the door. He then went back to the living room and began tearing down the streamers.

Emily walked into the kitchen to find Lorelai and Sookie giggling. "Who doesn't love a lip gloss that doubles as a necklace?" Lorelai was saying indicating the one around her neck.

"I know what you mean. I feel like I'm fifteen again," then added in a teen-like voice, "Jackson is _so _getting under my bra tonight."

Lorelai laughed at this and joined in Sookie's silliness. "Oh My God. Luke _totally _got some under-the-bra action himself last night." This incited a giggle from her friend, a look of disdain from her mother, and a brusque reply from her fiancé.

"Hey," Luke called gruffly from the living room,"I can hear you."

"Lorelai, _really,_" Emily said. She knew from her previous conversations with her daughter that she and Luke had an active sex life, but she was surprised that they would be doing anything like that on their first weekend with his daughter in the house.

"What, Mom? It's true," she said with a smile as she reflected on her efforts of the night before to get her very sexy man to capitulate to her wishes.

"No, it's not," Luke said as he made his way to the back door, carrying a full trash bag.

"Hey, don't try to deny that you had your way with me last night just because my mother's standing here."

"I'm not denying anything," he said. "But in order for me to get under your bra, you'd have had to be wearing one at the time and you weren't," he added with a grin, "Just the worn-out flannel that you stole from me."

"I did _not _steal that flannel. I worked _very_ hard to earn it," she said with a smile as she slipped her arm around him and gave his butt a gentle squeeze.

"Hey, you're getting awful handsy there, Lady" he said smirking at her. "That's private property, you know."

"I know, but it's _my _private property," she said challengingly. "Besides, I don't recall you complaining last night."

"Well, just keep your hands to yourself while there's people in the house."

"Fine," She said with a pouty expression on her face. "Go on and take that trash out."

"So, is that how it's gonna be? I'm relegated to trash detail now?"

"From what I hear, that's a husband's job," she quipped.

"I'm not your husband yet," he pointed out.

"A mere technicality," she countered. "You will be soon enough, so you better get used to performing your husbandly duties."

"I thought I had covered that pretty well last night," he said with a devilish grin, giving her a taste of her own medicine.

"Good Lord," Emily said. "When do the two of you ever sleep?"

"We sleep plenty, Mom. We just make sure we're good and tired before going to sleep," Lorelai answered with a giggle.

"Jeez," Luke said with a slight blush creeping over his face. While he had always enjoyed the teasing banter that he and Lorelai shared, he still wasn't entirely comfortable with references being made to their private life in front of Emily. She had only recently started treating him like a real human being instead of looking down her nose at him as if he were a bug she needed to squash under her feet. For Lorelai's sake and for the sake of his unborn children, he wanted it to stay that way, but he was a realist. He had no illusions that Emily would ever totally accept him as a son-in-law or fully know who he really was, but she had made an effort lately even referring to him as 'family' when they'd had their argument outside the soda shop after he'd caught her haranguing Taylor and Nicole. She'd even sort of accepted April as part of the family. That had really surprised him. He figured that her finding out that he had a daughter he'd never known about would just be one more thing that she could hold against him, but she had thrown him for a loop by being way more supportive than he'd ever thought she was capable of being. He wondered if the brief conversation they'd had about his mother and how she would've taken to Rory had anything to do with the effort she was making to get to know his daughter.

Lorelai turned back to Luke, "Now, you go. Get that trash out, Mister."

"Yes, Dear," he said in mock annoyance before heading out the back door where he found his nephew leaning against the porch rail that he'd fixed many times. "Hey," he said.

"Hey," Jess replied. "So, Lorelai's really got you toeing the line, huh?"

"Shut up," Luke said.

"I'm just calling it like I see it. You're hauling trash out like the typical suburban husband, something I never thought I'd see you do."

"What are you talking about? You've seen me haul trash outside many times."

"Yeah, for the diner, but this is different," Jess said with a wry grin.

"It's just all a part of the whole package deal, something that you encouraged, if you recall."

"I know, it's just weird to see you so domesticated. I mean, you're even kissing the Gilmores' asses."

"I'm not kissing anybody's ass! This is the kind of stuff you do when you're in a grown-up, committed relationship, something you have no experience with," Luke said getting aggravated. He loved his nephew and appreciated the effort he'd made at getting him to reconcile with Lorelai, but he was getting tired of the snide comments.

"Like you're any better," Jess said grouchily. "Remember Nicole? The wife you didn't really treat like a wife?"

"What is your obsession with my first marriage? I know that I made mistakes with Nicole, but that's in the past."

"And you nearly repeated the same mistakes with Lorelai, something that you would have been kicking yourself for. I mean, you finally got the girl of your dreams and you almost lost her."

"Don't you think I know that? I thank my lucky stars everyday that Lorelai was willing to give me another chance after the way I hurt her. That she forgave me for that, when most people wouldn't have. We're getting married four weeks from today and she's carrying my children. I'm not going to take a chance on doing anything to screw that up again, so if that means I'm all domesticated and that I take the trash out when she asks me to, so be it. Besides, I wouldn't want her doing any heavy lifting while she's pregnant anyway." Luke stomped down the back steps toward the trash cans outside while his nephew followed.

"Jeez, relax," Jess said. "I only meant it as a joke at first, then you started picking at me. Why are you getting so defensive?"

Luke dropped the trash bag into the can and slammed the lid back on it, before turning on his nephew. "Because unlike you and this thing with Rory, whatever it is, I realize now how quickly everything could just fall apart again and I'm doing my damndest to make sure that doesn't happen. I can't lose Lorelai! I can't lose my children! You have no idea what the last few months have been like for me! I find out I have this kid out of nowhere right when Lorelai and I are starting to really build a life together, a kid that her mother never had any intention of telling me about, that she didn't trust me to be a decent father to, then I got so wrapped up in trying to make up for twelve years of lost time with her that I broke Lorelai's heart. Then after the talk you and I had last month, I started to see just how much I was hurting her and started doing things to fix it, then as if that wasn't enough, when I came back here to talk to Lorelai that night, out of the blue she tells me she's pregnant and I'm going to be a father again! Then I go to the doctor with her and guess what? She's having twins!"

"You don't sound like you're that happy about it!"

"I _am_ happy about it. My kids aren't even born yet and I already love them, but it's a lot to deal with and I have no idea what I'm doing here. I've never dealt with a crazy, hormonal, pregnant woman before. I'm just trying to keep her calm so she doesn't stress herself out while she's pregnant. The doctor said unnecessary stress isn't good for her or the babies, so if it makes her happy that I take the trash out or do stuff around the house or put up with her uppity parents, then that's what I'm going to do! I'm not gonna be one of those pathetic guys who can't keep a relationship together and only gets to see his kids on weekends. It's bad enough that I have that with April."

"So, you're doing all this stuff just so you don't miss out on stuff with your kids like you did with April?"

"No, it's not just that! You think I'm only marrying Lorelai because she's pregnant?"

"Well, I don't know what to think. A month ago, you were dragging your feet and now it's all sunshine and roses! It just seems a little sudden to me, especially with it all happening right after you find out you knocked her up!"

Luke grunted in frustration. What was going on with people thinking that Lorelai's pregnancy was the only reason he was going through with it? First it was Richard and now, Jess. "First of all, we were engaged long before that happened, and secondly, I was making plans to get our wedding back together before I even knew she was pregnant. I want to marry her more than anything. I want to spend the rest of my life with her and grow old together and do all the stupid things that couples in love are supposed to do! The twins were a surprise, yes, but the way I see it, they're just an added bonus! We talked about having kids together the night we got engaged. I don't know if I'll be any good at this fatherhood thing, but at least this time I'll get to be there from the start and do all the things with them that I never got to do with April! But in order for that to happen, I have to work my ass off to keep things right with me and Lorelai! Relationships take work! It's not all 'sunshine and roses' like you suggested. We still have our moments where we argue or get jealous or do stupid stuff, but how you deal with it is by talking it out and not letting things fester!"

"Talking things out is not your strong point, Uncle Luke. You're the king of letting things fester, usually until it's finally too much for you to take and you blow up on everyone around you."

"Don't you think I know that, Jess? It's one of the things that I really hate about myself. That I tend to hold things back and keep everything bottled up inside, but it's something that I'm really working on for the woman I love, something you oughtta try once in a while. You're the same damn way."

"I know," Jess said sadly. "That's what lost me Rory to begin with. I didn't let her in on all the stuff that was going on at school, mainly because I was embarrassed. I mean, there she was with her fancy private school and her pick of the Ivy League and I couldn't even manage to graduate from high school. How could I tell the girl I loved that I was this total loser?"

"You are not a total loser, Jess, Look at all you've accomplished since then. You're a published author now, and you've got your business with your 'zine and your unidentifiable art hanging all over the place and the poetry and whatever else you've got going on there. That's impressive, especially given the fact that you don't have a high school diploma. That means something and I, for one, am proud of you."

"This is a beautiful moment we're having here," Jess said sarcastically. "I think I may cry."

"Why do you always have to be such a smartass when people give you a compliment or show real emotion around you? You were the one just a month ago who was preaching to me that I needed to tell Lorelai how I really feel and now you're acting like it's all a big joke."

"Yeah, I was preaching to you about all that stuff, but that was because I didn't want to see you throwing away the best relationship you've ever had and be just that crazy old hermit who lives above a diner and that was exactly where you were headed. Do you think that if you and Lorelai split up that you could ever find another relationship that could compare now that you've had the object of your years of fantasies?"

"You think that's all this thing with me and Lorelai is, fulfilling a fantasy? Believe me, if this is all that was, there wouldn't have been obstacles in our way to being with 'cause that's not how fantasies work. Everything would have been perfect from the start, like some cheesy Disney fairy tale. Is that what your fascination with Rory is? Trying to fulfill a fantasy?"

"Don't turn this around on me! I know that I screwed up with Rory! I told you that when I was trying to talk you into making things right with Lorelai."

"Well, I know now that I screwed up with Lorelai too, and I'm doing my best to make it right, Dammit! What the hell do you think this is all about? I moved in here like we planned on, our wedding plans are back together, I come home to the same place every night. I've rearranged my work schedule so that I can be home with her at night as much as possible. I'm dealing with her nutty, hormonal crying fits, and holding her head over the toilet when my kids are making her sick. I'm making sure she eats right and takes care of herself. I even agreed to let her parents buy us a new house as a wedding present even though it was against my better judgment to let them have that much control in our lives. I'm doing all I can to do what's right for my family. Just what the hell do you want from me?"

"I just want to make sure that you're doing all of this for the right reasons and not just because you feel you have to because she's pregnant. I know that you're all Mr. Responsible and if that's why you're suddenly all gung-ho about the wedding when you weren't a month ago, all you're gonna do is end up making both of you miserable. I mean, if things are really that good between you, great! I'm happy for you and I won't say another word about it."

"Things _are _that good between us. Granted, they're not perfect, but no relationship ever is. Any relationship is gonna have conflict from time to time. That's just how it is, but you make the best of it and you move on. That's what Lorelai and I are trying to do here. We realize that we've both made mistakes and we're trying our hardest to make sure that we don't make the same mistakes again."

"So, you'll just make all new ones?"Jess quipped.

Luke had to laugh at this. "Yeah, I guess," he said with a chuckle. They stood there in silence for a moment before Luke turned more serious. "So, now that we've got my relationship stuff out of the way, let's talk about yours. What exactly is going on with you and Rory?"

"There's nothing going on with me and Rory," Jess said bitterly. She'd made that very clear after their kiss had ended.

"So, you just decided to get into the spirit of the makeover party by wearing her lipstick?"Luke countered.

"Come on, Luke, don't," Jess pleaded with his uncle.

"Don't 'come on, Luke' me. I told you before, that girl is like a daughter to me and will be my step-daughter very soon. If you're playing with her head in any way…"he said menacingly

"I'm _not_ playing with her head. If anything, she's playing with mine! She's the one who came to Philly and kissed me! She's the one who invited me to stay at Lane's wedding. Then when I walked her home that night, she asked for _my _number and kissed me on the cheek. She's the one who's been calling and texting me. Tonight, I just wanted to talk to her and she started going on and on about how I was this big hero for getting you and her mom back on track and the next thing I know, she's all over me again. I didn't ask for it."

"But you didn't stop it, did you?"

"Yes, I did! When she asked me to stop, I stopped. I'm not one of those guys that are gonna push a woman into something she doesn't want, those assholes who use the 'she was asking for it' bit as a defense for date-rape! I'm a firm believer in the whole 'no means no' thing. You have to know that I would never do that to her! I love her, Dammit!"

"Do you really love her, Jess, or is this just about trying to rekindle your teenage romance?" He thought about Christopher's teenage mentality when it came to his obsession with Lorelai as he said this, hoping that his nephew was not doing the same thing with Rory.

"_Yes_," Jess said ardently. "I _really _love her! Have you ever once stopped to think about how hard this is for me? One minute, she's right there with me in the moment and the next, she's telling me it was all a big mistake and she's not ready. While I respect the fact that she just broke up with someone and needs some time to heal, this is tearing me up inside! What she's doing is completely unfair to me!"

"Well, get over it! Life isn't fair. That's just the deal! I know it's gotta be infuriating to be that close and still not get the girl you want. Believe me; I went through that with Lorelai for years, while she went through relationship after relationship, never noticing that there was a guy who already loved her standing right in front of her."

"But as least you got the girl," Jess said resentfully.

"You never know, you might too. For what it's worth, I don't think she's intentionally trying to mess with your head. I think she's just sad and lonely."

"That still doesn't make it right."

"I know," Luke said. "But if you really want this to work, it has to be on her terms. You can't just show up, tell her you love her and bail or surprise her at school begging her to run away with you."

"Rory told you about that," Jess asked a little embarrassed that his uncle knew about his impulsive, humiliating attempt at fixing things with her two years ago.

"Yeah, she did. Not one of your finer moments."

"I was stupid to think that she'd just drop everything and run off to New York with me, but I had to try something. I was miserable without her."

"I know that feeling well," Luke said as he recalled the month he and Lorelai had spent apart during their painful break-up. "I hated every minute that Lorelai and I were apart when we broke up last year."

"So, how did you fix it?"

"I really didn't. Emily did."

"Emily Gilmore? You've got to be kidding me! She hates you! She's the one that broke you guys up in the first place! How the hell did that happen?"

"She came to see me one night at the diner saying she wanted to talk to me. I wanted to throw her out, but instead I just stood there and listened while she ran her mouth about how she and Lorelai weren't speaking and about all the fights they'd had over the years."

"I'm a little lost here, "Jess said. "How did that get you two back together? I would've thought that would've made you want to get even farther away."

"It did, at first. As much as I wanted to be with Lorelai, I couldn't stand the thought of having to put up with her family and all the drama that comes with it. But one thing she said that night kept haunting me."

"What was that?"

"'She wants you.' That was all it took. Just knowing that Lorelai still wanted me in spite of everything was all the motivation I needed to do what I wanted to do anyway. Now, I won't pretend that that magically fixed things. We had a lot to work through. We still do, but we're working hard on our communication skills, which is where we were really lacking. We were talking the night after the conversation you and I had about the whole situation with the wedding being postponed and April and Anna and everything and both came to the conclusion that we talked to each other a lot better when we were just friends. I think I've finally figured out why it was easier then."

"Really? Why's that?"

"Well, when we were just friends, there wasn't the pressure that there is now. I think Lorelai and I both know that now that we've been together as a couple that it would be next to impossible to recover our friendship if we split up. That month that we broke up, we barely spoke to each other. I think that a lot of our lack of communication as a couple is out of fear of losing our friendship, but we're trying to work on that. Something you might want to think about with Rory. The two of you have a similar relationship. You were friends before you were a couple. Maybe right now, until she's had time to recover from this whole mess with Logan, that's what you should focus on, just regaining your friendship with her. You've both changed in the last couple of years. You're not kids anymore. Maybe you should really take the time to get to know each other as adults."

"Yeah, maybe you're right," Jess said as he pondered his uncle's words.

"I know I'm right," he said confidently.

"Hey, change of subject here. Is it cool if I crash at the apartment again?"

"Yeah, as long as you don't mind sleeping in my old bed up there," Luke answered. "I kinda gave your old bed to April so she'd have a place to sleep. I hope you don't mind."

"Nah, she's your kid. Just please tell me there are clean sheets on that bed in the apartment," Jess teased.

"Relax, Jess. The last one to sleep in that bed was Christopher. Lorelai and I have been spending all our nights here since I moved in."

"Good," Jess said with a grin.

"Come on. Let's get back in there before Lorelai wonders what I'm up to."

"Like I said, toeing the line," Jess quipped.

"Shut up," Luke grumbled again as he walked through the back door followed by his nephew to find Richard, April and Rory engaged in another heated debate while Lorelai and Emily looked on in silence.

"You're both completely insane," Richard said shaking his head as he thought of how this debate had gotten started. He'd only re-entered the house to see what was taking Emily so long to retrieve her forgotten purse and had ended up engaged in another clash with the girls over Ayn Rand's politics."It was completely wrong of John Galt to drag all the brilliant minds of the world away from where they were needed."

"How was it wrong? It's not like he kidnapped them at gunpoint and forced them to do his bidding. Those people chose to leave a society that had abused them," April countered.

"They were hardly being abused, April. It's not as if they were being held hostage."

"Maybe not physically," Rory argued. "But their ideas were being held hostage."

"You've got to be talking about that political nut-job Ayn Rand," Jess interjected.

"Now, don't you start too," Rory said challengingly.

"Hey, you already know my thoughts on Ayn Rand. She was a crazy woman, always spouting off about how objectivism is the only political view worth embracing and that reason is the only way of acquiring knowledge."

"What's wrong with the theory of reason being the only way of acquiring knowledge," April challenged her cousin.

"For one thing, it completely takes the human factor out of the equation. Human beings by nature are not always reasonable. We have emotions that throw reason out the window," he said with a meaningful glance at Rory.

Jess' action was not lost on Richard since he'd been in the room during Luke's conversation with Jess regarding Rory while he stayed silent. He chose to let this slide as well. He thought Luke had made some good points of his own and left it at that. Instead he focused his attention on the debate at hand and said to Jess, "Could it be that I've found an ally against these two in their juvenile arguments about objectivism?"

"Juvenile?"Rory questioned. "Why are our opinions juvenile? Is it just because you're older than us?"

"Certainly not," Richard answered. "Jess is the same age you are and he seems to agree with me."

"Well, Rory already knows my opinion on Ayn Rand and her Nazi-like devotion to her insane political views," Jess said. "I only read her books because she badgered me into it."

"I didn't badger you into it. That was more than a fair trade-off for me wading through the very murky depth of Ernest Hemingway's mind."

"And what's wrong with Hemingway?"Richard asked his granddaughter.

"It's just boring. And what was his obsession with bullfighting?"

"If you'd study a little on his life, you'd find that he was intrigued by the sport after his experiences in Spain in the '20's. He even considered becoming a bullfighter himself at one point in his life."

"Still not something I want to read about, sorry, Grandpa."

Luke decided to interrupt before the conversation could turn into yet another impassioned argument. "So, I bet you two must be getting tired after all the excitement of the day," he said to his future in-laws. "I bet you're ready to head back to Hartford."

"Are you trying to get rid of us," Emily challenged with an arched eyebrow.

"…Um….no….not at all…,"Luke stammered trying to backpedal and dislodge his foot from his mouth. "I just thought that you'd be ready to call it a night since we've all got another busy day ahead of us tomorrow."

"Ass-kisser, Party of one," Jess muttered under his breath to his uncle who nudged him with his elbow to shut him up.

"Good, because I'd hate to think that we're not welcome in our daughter's home," Emily said feeling a little slighted at the notion that her future son-in-law was trying to get rid of them when they'd made every effort to accept him as a part of the family. Granted this was still a fairly new thing, but couldn't he see that they were trying?

"Of course, you're welcome here, Mom," Lorelai said in an attempt to rescue her man from the awkward position he'd gotten himself into.

"Well, I never can be sure. When we offered to stay and help clean up, you acted like you couldn't get rid of us fast enough."

"That's not what we were trying to do, Emily," Luke said. "I just don't think it's right to ask guests to help clean-up."

"Guests?"Emily queried with hostility in her voice. "Is that all we are? I thought we were family."

"Oh, boy," Lorelai muttered quietly as she thought of where this conversation was sure to be headed.

"Besides," Emily continued. "I didn't notice you turning down Sookie's offer to help clean up after the party." She was deeply hurt by the fact that her daughter seemed closer to Sookie than she did her own mother. That she treated her more like family than her parents.

"It's not like Sookie's very good with the word 'no,' as you saw earlier when we were arguing about cooking," Luke pointed out.

"I still don't understand it. Why is it so hard for the two of you to let us be a real part of your lives? Why do you insist on keeping this wall up between all of us?"

"We're not, Mom," Lorelai said. "I just thought you were only offering to help to be polite. I didn't think you really wanted to help. I mean, come on, Mom. You've had maids my whole life to do your cleaning for you while you stood around and barked orders at them. How was I supposed to know that you'd really wanted to help pick up after a teenager's birthday party?"

"I just don't know what more I can do to show you that I want to be involved in every aspect of your new family life. Is this how it's going to be in the future? You'll let me have visits with my grandchildren on birthdays and holidays, but keep me out of your everyday life like you did when Rory was little?" Emily blinked back the tears that were forming in her eyes, once again trying to hide her vulnerable side from her daughter. She wanted so much to have a real relationship with her, but every time that she thought they were making progress toward having that, Lorelai would shut her out again. "I suppose it will take another moment of desperation, like when you needed money for Rory's education, for you to keep my involved in your life. I imagine you'll wait until the twins are ready to go to college and you need money for their tuition before you'll let your father and I get to know them." She knew she had gone too far when she saw the hurt look on her daughter's face. She'd once again let her repressed feelings of being an outsider in her daughter's life overtake her mouth and had said too much. She saw the furrowed brow on the Luke and the way he had his lips clamped firmly together, obviously biting back some withering comment that she knew she deserved.

"That is _so _not true, Mom," Lorelai said before Luke could say what she knew he was thinking about Emily's insinuation that he'd be unable to provide for his children's education ."If it were, do you think that Luke and I would be coming to Friday night dinners like we have been? It's not like any of us are still under any obligation to do so since Christopher's the one paying for Yale now."

Luke stiffened at the mention of Christopher paying for Rory's education. While he'd told Lorelai that he was ok with it, it actually bothered him more than he'd let on. A lot of his supportiveness at the time had been due to the guilty feelings he'd been having over the fact that he'd never been there for April. He was glad that Christopher had started to take a real interest in Rory's life now, but it still bugged him that Christopher had never been there for her growing up and that he still had a lingering obsession with Lorelai. He hoped that Christopher wouldn't end up hurting Rory again or try to make more trouble in his relationship with Lorelai like he had in the past. He silently fumed as he thought of his mother-in-law's unfounded assumption that he would need the Gilmores' help to secure his children's future. He was seriously thinking now that he'd made a mistake in letting them purchase the house for his family. He'd been afraid that it would just open the door to more ridicule about how his assets were considerably smaller than Christopher's. He wondered if this had been Emily's plan all along with her offer of buying their future home for them, to make him feel inferior to Christopher yet again. He shook off the nagging thoughts that were plaguing him and held in all the acerbic words he wanted to fling at her. Instead he said, "She's right, Emily. We've been voluntarily coming to dinner on Friday nights and we've been making an effort to include you guys in our lives. We had you over here for dinner last Sunday, a dinner I cooked, if you recall. And we invited you to the party, didn't we?"

"I suppose," Emily said still not convinced. She glanced at Luke again and was grateful that he hadn't blasted her for her unwarranted verbal assault on him.

"Hey," April interjected trying to stop another argument. "We were all gonna watch a movie after the clean-up was done. You're welcome to join us if you want."

"Thank you, April, but I think I'll pass. I don't need your pity invite," Emily said icily.

"It's not a pity invite," April said. "I wouldn't invite you if I didn't want you here, just like I wouldn't have invited you to go along on our shopping trip tomorrow if I didn't want you around."

"I appreciate that, but I think that _some _people don't feel that way," she said with a frosty glare at her daughter.

"I never said I didn't want you here, Mom," Lorelai said.

"Well, you acted all put out earlier when I told you that April invited me along on the shopping trip."

"I wasn't put out," Lorelai declared defensively. "I was just surprised. That's all. I never meant to imply that you weren't welcome or that I didn't want you around. I kind of enjoyed that last shopping trip, especially the stop at Victoria's Secret." She flashed her mother an impish grin reminding her of their very candid conversation in the store as she was lingerie shopping for her honeymoon.

"That was rather enjoyable, wasn't it," Emily said with a smile as she recalled the fact that her daughter had actually shared some very personal information with her.

"I thought it was," Rory agreed. "Though I could've lived without the imagery that shopping trip put in my head."

"It's better than the visual you got last weekend," Lorelai said teasingly.

"Please, Mom, I'm trying to repress that," Rory said with a grimace.

"Do I even wanna know what you're talking about?"April asked.

"No," Luke said gruffly as he blushed slightly at the memory of his future step-daughter catching him in a compromising position with her mother and hoping that something like that never happened with April.

"So, what movie did you plan to watch," Richard asked in an effort to change the subject.

"_The Life of David Gale,_" April answered. "I brought it with me from home since Dad and Lorelai told me I could pick the movie tonight with it being my birthday celebration."

"Good movie," Jess commented.

"What's it about?"Emily asked.

"You'll just have to stay and watch it to find out," April said challengingly, then seeing the stern look on Emily's face added more quietly, "That is, if you wanna stay."

Emily glanced at her daughter, looking for approval. When Lorelai smiled encouragingly at her, she replied, "I think we will stay for the movie. Thank you, April."

"So, let's get everything set up in the living room then," Luke said as he looked around the room. "By the way, what happened to Sookie?"

"Oh, she went home to go have her way with Jackson," Lorelai answered.

"Ewww," Rory and April said together and giggled.

"Hey, they do have two children together. How do you think they got them? That reminds me; before she left she gave us this," Lorelai said to Luke, as she picked up a brightly colored envelope off the table.

"What is it?"

"This is an invitation to Martha Bellville's first birthday party. And you, my friend, are expected to attend."

"Fun," Luke grumbled sarcastically.

"Hey, be nice. Sookie and Jackson are our friends and they have been nothing but supportive of all the changes going on in our lives."

"I know and I have no problem with Sookie or Jackson. It's their kids that drive me up the wall."

"Just think of this party as good practice for when our little ones make their appearance in the world."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," he grumbled.

"I'm gonna go get the movie ready," April said and headed into the living room.

"You know, I should get going," Jess said a little awkwardly. "I don't want to intrude on your family thing you've got going on here."

"Jess, you don't have to leave," Rory argued. "You're family too."

"Well, I don't wanna crash."

"Jess, come one, you're welcome to stay and hang out with us," Lorelai said. "After all, in just a few weeks when I marry your uncle, you're gonna be my nephew too."

"Jeez, does that mean I have to start calling you Aunt Lorelai?"

"Yes, you do," She said with a grin.

"No, you don't," Luke said gruffly.

"Hey, I'm an only child, so it's not like there's ever gonna be anyone else to call me 'Aunt Lorelai,'" she pouted.

"Save it for Liz and TJ's new baby," Luke said.

"Spoilsport," she grumbled.

"Come on, Crazy Lady; let's get your ungodly amounts of junk food piled up in the living room so we can get this movie started." He began rooting through the kitchen cabinets pulling out bags of marshmallows, Red Vines, chocolate kisses and jelly beans while Lorelai made popcorn.

"Do you need any help?"Emily asked as she watched the activity.

Luke hesitated for a moment not wanting to offend her again by refusing, before saying, "Um…sure…If you want to, you can find out what everybody wants to drink. Everything's in the fridge and there's a serving on top of it. That is, if you don't mind."

"Not at all," she said with a smile at being included even thought it was small thing. "After all, we do serve the drinks at our house." She reached for the serving tray Luke had indicated and added with a pointed look at her daughter, "That's not one of the things that we let the maids do."

A while later they were all gathered in the living room engrossed in the movie. Emily and Richard were sharing the couch with April while Jess and Rory occupied the floor in front April's end of it and Lorelai sat sprawled across Luke in the overstuffed armchair next to them. They watched as a drunken David Gale, played by Kevin Spacey, tried to ward off the advances of his former student to no avail. When Luke got where this scene was headed, he said gruffly to his daughter, "Jeez, April, cover your eyes." He wasn't comfortable with his thirteen-year-old daughter watching sex scenes.

"Chill, Dad. I _do _own this movie, so I've seen it before," she replied matter-of-factly.

"Your mother lets you watch stuff like this," he questioned wondering if he needed to have a talk with Anna about her viewing habits.

"The first time I watched it was in my government class when we were talking about the death penalty," she explained.

"Your school let you watch this?" Now he was thinking he needed to have a talk with the administrators at her school.

"We watched the edited-for-television version that didn't have all of this in it, but I liked the movie so I talked Mom into buying it for me."

"And she agreed?"

"Relax, Dad, really, it's not a big deal. This is the worst this movie gets. It's not all about the sex stuff. It's more about the politics surrounding capital punishment."

"She's right, Uncle Luke," Jess said. "I've seen this before too. It's more focused on the politics than anything else, that and the mystery surrounding Constance Harraway's death."

"Whatever," Luke groused still uncomfortable with the fact that his young daughter was watching a movie with a too-graphic-for his-taste sex scene in it. He was still stewing when Lorelai whispered seductively into his ear. "Stop," he said blushing furiously.

"Please tell me you weren't just suggesting that the two of you create your own version of this scene," Rory teased.

"No," Lorelai said in mock horror. "I wouldn't do such a thing. What kind of girl do you think I am?"

"Don't make me answer that," Rory said mischievously.

"Where's the love?"

"Maybe she wasn't suggesting it a recreation of this scene, "Jess said with a devilish grin aimed at his uncle. "Maybe she was reminding Luke of their own bathroom sex scene."

"Ok, Ewww," April said wrinkling her nose.

"So, how about it, Uncle Luke," he probed teasingly. "You guys ever gotten busy in a bathroom at a party like in the movie?"

"None of you damn business," Luke grumbled blushing again as Lorelai smirked at him reminding him of the magazine party the year before when they _had _snuck away from the crowd and had frenzied sex in a bathroom, though not quite as rough as what was depicted in the movie they were watching.

"Look at your face," Jess said mirthfully. "You have, haven't you?"

"Can we steer this riveting conversation back to the movie," Emily said focusing her attention on the film, not wanting to know the answer to Jess' question.

"Yes, please," Richard chimed in a little awkwardly. While he had told Luke that he fully accepted the fact that he had a physical relationship with Lorelai, he had no interest in knowing any of the intimate details of their sex life, nor did he want to picture his only daughter pinned up against a bathroom sink like the young woman in the film.

"Wow," Rory said as she turned her attention back to the movie. "She's totally setting him up, isn't she?"

"I figured with all you movie knowledge, you'd have seen this one already," Jess said in surprise.

"Nope, never seen it," she replied. "But it's kind of obvious that she's setting him up to accuse him of rape."

"How do you figure?" Lorelai asked.

"Come on, Mom. You already know from the beginning of the movie that he's on death row for rape and murder and she waited until he was falling-down drunk to make her move, knowing his inhibitions would be lowered and she's encouraging him to get a little rough with her. It smells like a set-up to me."

"I don't know. She's not the same woman that he's in prison for killing though."

"No, I think Rory's right," Emily said. "I think the little tart is purposely making it look like he forced himself on her."

"You guys will just have to watch the rest of the movie to find out," Jess said.

"Hey, quit hogging all the Red Vines," Rory said impatiently to her mother snatching the bag from her hands.

"Hey!" Lorelai protested. "You're playing in dangerous territory there, Kid, stealing food from a pregnant woman!"

"Since when do Red Vines qualify as food," April quipped.

"You have so much to learn, Grasshopper. Red Vines are a major staple in this house."

"In that case, I can never come over here again. I'm strictly a Twizzlers girl."

Lorelai gaped at her in mock horror. "Sacrilege! This is your influence, isn't it?" She said to Luke.

"Don't look at me," he said with a shrug. "I don't like either one. You know I don't eat any of that sticky sweet crap. I'm amazed that the two of you haven't ballooned up to four hundred pounds with all the junk you eat."

"Spoken by the man who's been our enabler," Rory teased.

"Don't remind me," Luke groused.

"I don't know if I can be friends with a Red Vine hater," Lorelai teased her future step-daughter.

"I'm not a hater," April protested. "I just prefer Twizzlers."

"I'm right there with you, Cousin," Jess said."Red Vines are ok, but Twizzlers are much better."

"That's it," Rory said giving Jess a playful shove. "You go sit over there. I can't sit next to a Twizzler lover."

"No, I'm comfortable."

"Too bad. Move it, Buddy," she teased nudging him again.

"Nope, I'm staying put. You don't wanna sit next to me, you move," he challenged nudging her back.

"Not happening. I'm comfy too."

"Then I guess we just have to agree to disagree. I'll even eat some of your disgusting Red Vines, if it'll make you happy," he said reaching for the bag in her hand.

She yanked the bag out of his reach and said, "Not so fast. What makes you think I'd share them with you now after you insulted them?"

"Hey! Gimme!" He reached up and tried to grab them from her grasp.

"No! Too late," she said as she held them up higher. "Mine!"

"Wanna bet?' he challenged as he reached for the sensitive spot he knew was just under her ribcage and tickled her there causing her to giggle uncontrollably.

Lorelai saw her chance and snatched the coveted bag out of her daughter's hands with a triumphant, "Ha!"

Rory swatted Jess' hands away playfully and said, "See what you did? Now, neither one of us gets them. It's so not fair that you know my ticklish spots. That's playing dirty."

"That's what you get for being selfish," He retorted with a grin.

"Hey, guys, the movie," April reminded. "My favorite part is coming up."

Jess turned back to the TV and said, "Oh, yeah, Gale's debate with the governor when he compares him to Hitler."

"Yep," she said with a nod.

Rory glanced at Jess marveling at how relaxed she felt with him even after their awkward moment earlier. She settled back down and leaned her head against his shoulder. He looked at her for a moment and upon seeing the welcoming look in her eyes, loosely draped his arm across her shoulders letting her lean into him a little more as they both turned back to the movie.

Luke watched all of this in silence, wanting to say something, but knowing that it wasn't really his business. He noticed that Rory seemed more relaxed than she had been in weeks. She'd been upset an on edge since she'd found out about Logan and the bridesmaids. Now, she seemed happy. Not the-hills-are-alive-with-the-sound-of-music-happy, but at least content for the moment. He hoped with all his heart that his nephew wouldn't do anything to once again screw it up like he had in the past. After their talk outside, he didn't think he would, but he also knew that Rory and Jess were both hot-headed at times. His reverie was broken by Lorelai's voice saying, "Wow, is he getting wound up." She indicated the character in the film. "Makes me think of you and your famous rants," she said with a smile as she brushed a light kiss against his lips.

"Well, I'm no Kevin Spacey," he said wryly.

"Too bad," she said. "He's kinda hot."

"What?"

"I'm just saying I wouldn't kick him out of bed," she said with a grin.

"I thought Kelsey Grammar was your perfect man," he teased.

"Yeah, but Kevin Spacey runs a close second. I wouldn't turn him down."

"Hey!"

"What? You were talking about your thing for Pat Benatar earlier," she pointed out.

"But I'd still choose you over her any day," he said sincerely.

"Aw, sweet," she said which induced retching noises from April, Rory and Jess.

"Knock it off," Luke said gruffly.

"Remember what I said about you guys getting too mushy," April said. "This is one of those moments."

"Maybe we should've invited Freddy over for you," Luke teased. "Maybe then it wouldn't bother you so much."

"Dad!" she said blushing furiously.

"Who's Freddy?" Emily asked with a bemused smile.

"No one," April protested still blushing.

"This boy at school that April has a crush on," Rory answered her grandmother with a grin directed at April.

"I do _not _have a crush!"

"That's not what I heard," Rory fired back.

"Well, you heard wrong," April said folding her arms across her chest the way her father often did when he was irritated.

Rory couldn't resist teasing her little-sister-to-be and started singing, "Freddy and April sitting in a tree…"

"Stop it," April demanded.

"…k-i-s-s-i-n-g…"

April reached into the popcorn bowl and launched a handful of it at Rory. "I mean it. Knock it off," she said. Luke laughed uproariously at the girls' antics until April did the same to him, hitting both him and Lorelai with it. "See what you started."

"Hey! Innocent bystander here," Lorelai protested as she was peppered with bits of popcorn.

"You could've stopped him at any time," April said challengingly launching another fistful of popcorn their direction.

"Oh, now it's on, Little Girl. You wanna start something, you got it," she said reaching for the throw pillow beside her and attacking her with it.

"Hey," Emily cried as April collided with her dumping the popcorn bowl in an effort to get away from Lorelai's pillow attack. "I'm really an innocent bystander here," she protested causing her husband to burst out laughing earning him a glare from her.

"Grandma, you wanted to be involved. That's the price you pay," Rory said joining in by pitching marshmallows at April in retaliation for the popcorn assault hitting her grandmother in the process.

"Oh, that's it," Emily said as she scooped up a pile of popcorn from her lap and tossed it Rory's direction, nailing both her and Jess with it.

"Hey!" Jess said. "Leave me out of this!"

"You're part of this family too, Jess," Luke said as he started pitching bits of popcorn at him from the chair while Emily ducked another lobbed marshmallow from Rory causing Richard to get hit with it.

"Hey, I'm unarmed here," Richard protested as he picked up the offending marshmallow and tossed it in Rory's direction the movie momentarily forgotten as they all continued flinging popcorn and marshmallows and attacking each other with throw pillows inducing laughter and screams as they tried to avoid each other's attacks.

When the fight lost its momentum and they all dissolved into fits of laughter Rory said to April, "You picked the wrong house to start a food fight in. Mom and I are champion food fighters." She aimed a high five at her mom.

"Damn right, we are," Lorelai said with a smile.

"I've been on the receiving end of those champion food fights too many times," Luke said.

April, who was still sprawled across Emily's lap, looked at Rory with a conspiratorial grin and they both giggled as they recalled the picture-sharing of the night before. When the laughter subsided a little, Rory said, "We forgot about poor David Gale on death row." She reached for April's hand and helped her into a sitting position.

"Thanks," April said. "Sorry about crash-landing on you," she added to Emily a little sheepishly.

"That's quite alright, April," Emily said with a smile.

"What do you say we get back to the movie?" Lorelai said as she resumed her seat on Luke's lap who wrapped his arms around her. She glanced at Emily, not quite able to believe that her parents had immersed themselves in the battle without saying one judgmental word and that they'd actually seemed to enjoy themselves. She turned back to the movie and leaned her head on Luke's shoulder.

Emily stood for a moment and brushed the remaining popcorn from her lap. She looked over at her daughter who was happily wrapped in her fiancé's embrace and smiled. She never would have imagined in a million years that she'd ever take part in something as juvenile as a food fight, but she had to admit to herself, if no one else, that she'd had a good time. It was nice to be included in the family life that her daughter had built for herself. She sat back down between April and Richard and leaned against her husband who in turn slipped an arm around her and pulled her closer planting a light kiss on the top of her head as he thought of how she was being much more tolerant of their daughter's very different lifestyle than she had in the past.

Jess and Rory settled themselves back into their earlier position before the food fight had begun with Rory leaning her head on his shoulder and his arm draped across her shoulders. April looked at everyone else and said, "Now, I'm feeling a little left out here."

"Hey, anytime you wanna invite Freddy over here, just say the word," Luke teased. "Just give me some notice, so I can have one of my trusty baseball bats on hand in case he tries anything he shouldn't."

"Dad, come on," April said blushing again.

"I certainly feel for any boy who tries to get fresh with you, April. I know from first-hand experience how heavy your father's baseball bats are," Richard said.

"Speaking of getting fresh," Lorelai said to Luke indicating his hand that had inched its way up her thigh. "Look who's getting a little handsy now, Mister."

"Hey, hands where I can see them, Buddy," Rory teased.

"What? I'm not doing anything," Luke protested.

"I mean it, I wanna see hands in the air," she said echoing his words to Logan when they'd been caught making out at her grandparents' vow renewal. She felt a momentary twinge of sadness as she thought of Logan. She looked at Jess and shook off thoughts of the past and decided to focus on her future as she relaxed against him comforted by the fact that he was there.

"Jeez," Luke said as he raised his hands in the air for Rory to see. He'd noticed the brief flicker of pain that had flitted across her face and wondered what she was thinking, but he'd also noticed that that pained expression had been fleeing, unlike how it had been in the past. He hoped that meant that her heart was on the road to recovery.

The family finished watching the movie mostly in silence, occasionally throwing out comments here and there about the plot of the movie until the end when it was revealed that while David Gale was not the killer, he stood idly by and watched as his best friend committed suicide which sparked another debate.

"If you ask me, Gale got what he deserved," Richard said.

"How can you say that?"Rory said incredulously. "He didn't deserve the death penalty. He didn't murder Constance."

"No, but he stood there and did nothing while she killed herself. He could've stopped her and didn't. In my book, that makes him just as guilty."

"But it was what she wanted. She was dying anyway and isn't it better that she die a noble death for her cause than wither away to nothing because of the leukemia. She didn't want that kind of suffering."

"It was all pointless in the end, though," Luke said. "The governor blew it off as if it didn't matter that they'd executed an innocent man, so her death wasn't so noble at all. It didn't change anything."

"It may not have changed the government's opinion of capital punishment, but it got the public thinking. That's a good thing," Rory pointed out.

"It's not a good thing," Richard said hotly. "This was just the attempt of an extremist trying to manipulate the system. While Gale may not have actually been the one to kill the woman, he certainly could have stopped her from killing herself. He didn't. In my opinion, that makes him an accomplice to murder."

"I'm sorry, Richard, but I have to agree with Rory on this one," Emily said.

"Emily," he said in shock. "What are you saying?"

"How is this any different than a person dying of cancer not wanting to be kept alive by machines? She just chose to end her life with a little dignity rather than dragging out a slow painful death."

"I agree," Jess said. "Constance said herself that she wasn't up to the job of dying person. She didn't want to go out that way without accomplishing something in her life."

"Well, clearly I'm outnumbered here," Richard commented.

"For what it's worth, Richard, I partially agree with you," April said.

"Only partially? I'm intrigued. Which part do you agree with?"

"That Gale was an accomplice, but I don't think he should have been executed for it. I think he should have been sentenced the same way any accessory to murder would have been. I think the cowboy, Dusty Wright, should have been too."

"But there was no murder," Jess argued. "It was a suicide. The videotape proved that."

"But it also proved that both Gale and Wright helped a woman end her life," Richard pointed out. "That same type of thing is what landed Dr. Kevorkian in prison for second degree murder."

"It's not the same type of thing," Rory said adamantly."Kevorkian actually killed people. Gale and Wright didn't do anything other than be there. Constance did it all herself. She's the one who put the plastic bag over her head and handcuffed herself so she wouldn't try to rip the bag off out of instinct. She even made sure she swallowed the key to the handcuffs ahead of time so she wouldn't be tempted to unlock herself and not go through with it."

"A technique she learned about from Gale," Richard countered. "That makes him an accessory."

"But…,"Rory began but what cut off by her grandmother.

"Perhaps we should pick up this debate at a later time," Emily said. "It's getting late and we should be heading home."

"Fine," Rory grumbled still wanting to argue her point.

"We'll see you tomorrow," Richard said. He and his wife said her goodbyes and walked out of the crap shack. As they walked to their car he said to Emily, "You certainly seemed to enjoy yourself tonight." He chuckled a little as he recalled how she'd thrown herself into the food fight something that he'd never imagined she would do.

"I don't know how I'm ever going to get the grease stains out of this skirt from where it got popcorn dumped all over it," she groused as she brushed impatiently at her skirt.

"Come on, admit it," he said as he opened her door for her. "You had a good time."

"I don't know what you're talking about," She protested as she got into the car and watched in silence as he walked around to the other side and got behind the wheel. Richard reached for her hand and squeezed it lightly. "I can't believe their completely unruly behavior, acting like children and starting a food fight."

"Which we both took part in and you enjoyed every minute of it," he said with a smile as he picked a stray bit of popcorn out of her hair. She laughed when she realized what he was doing.

"Well, it _was _nice to be included," she admitted as she leaned in and kissed him lightly. "Though I think I'm going to have a bruise on my hip from where April fell on me," she added with a chuckle.

"Casualties of war," he said with a bemused smile he said as he started the car and began to back out of the driveway. He glanced briefly at his wife's smile and a thought struck him. "You didn't _really _forget your purse, did you?" He shifted the car into drive and turned it down the road leading out of town.

"What?" Emily said startled. "Of course, I did. You saw it sitting there on the counter when you came in after me."

"Emily, in the forty-plus years that I've known you, I've never seen you leave your purse anywhere. You always make sure you know exactly where it is. You purposely left it there so you'd have an excuse to go back in order to spend more time with Lorelai and the girls."

"Don't be ridiculous," she said impatiently knowing that she was busted. "Why would I do such a crazy thing?"

"I don't know, maybe because you're too afraid to ask Lorelai for permission to stay longer."

"You're insane, Richard. I'm not afraid of anything," she said dismissively.

"If you say so," he said with a smile knowing that Emily would never admit even to herself how much she not only wanted, but _needed _to be a bigger part of their daughter's life.

"Don't give me that patronizing 'if you say so' bit," she said sharply. "Say what you're thinking, Richard.

"I have been saying what I'm thinking. You're the one who has trouble saying what's really on your mind when it comes to Lorelai."

"That's absurd," she said. "Why do you think that she and I have fought so much over the years? It's because she doesn't like what I say to her about her life even though I'm just trying to be honest with her."

"And therein lies the fear," he pointed out. "You and Lorelai have started sharing things a lot more lately and have begun forging a stronger relationship and you're afraid of losing that by telling her how you really feel, hence the need to make an excuse to hang around longer."

"I told you I simply forgot my purse in the excitement of the party."

"Something you've never done in your entire life, Emily. When you went into labor with Lorelai and we were rushing around to get you to the hospital, you still didn't forget your purse." He glanced at her with a knowing smirk.

"Just watch the road, Richard. I'd like to get home in one piece," she said still not willing to admit that he was right.

* * *

After the Gilmores had left, the mess from the food fight had been cleaned up and Jess had gone to the apartment to crash for the night, Rory lay in her bed unable to go to sleep due to her rapidly racing mind. She was staring at the ceiling thinking about the events of the afternoon and evening, the incredible kiss she'd shared with Jess, their talk about it afterward and their camaraderie during the movie. She'd been immensely happy that they could argue about their situation but still relax together and watch a movie with their family as if nothing had happened. It reminded her of the way Luke and her mom were. They could have a big screaming match, then make up and an hour later be back to their quick-witted banter as if the ugliness of the fight had never been. She thought about how she'd been feeling lately, how she'd longed to find a guy that she felt that connected to, who could make her laugh even when she was mad at him. It was just tonight that she'd begun to realize that maybe the guy she was looking for was already right there and already loved her, much like how Luke had always loved her mother, but waited for her to be ready for him. Maybe Jess was more like his uncle than he thought. He was being awfully patient about her hot and cold treatment of him. She loved that even though they'd been apart, he still knew her better than anyone. He was the one who noticed immediately that her defection to her grandparents' house wasn't her and he'd been absolutely right when he'd said that Logan was the kind of gut that the two of them used to make fun of when they were kids. While she was angry at the time, she loved the fact that he'd told her to her face how stupid she was being and made her really face up to her actions. No one else had, though she had a feeling that Luke would have if her mother would have let him. She loved that he wasn't afraid to say what was on his mind. She loved that in spite of the fact that he hadn't graduated from high school, he'd still managed to pursue his dream of being a writer and had made it happen. She sighed as she thought of how many things she'd just listed in her head that she loved about Jess. _Do I love Jess,_ she asked herself as she climbed out of bed. She didn't know the answer but she was determined to find out. She quickly dressed and grabbed her mother's keys to the diner off of the hall table since Jess had Luke's set and headed out the door.

Jess was having a restless night of his own. He kept reliving the kiss with Rory over and over again in his head, wishing that he hadn't been stupid enough to proposition her when it had gotten more heated than she'd intended. He knew that she was still trying to heal from her break-up, but he couldn't help feeling that this might be his last chance with her. He wasn't about to let it pass by. He just wished he knew how to handle this situation better. He was trying so hard to be the good guy and give her the time and space she needed, but every time that he thought he was on the right track and things were progressing she backed off again. His mind lingered on his uncle's words and thought that maybe he was right. They didn't really know each other as adults, but the thing that he couldn't wrap his mind around was her fickleness. She came to see him in Philly, she asked him to stay at Lane's wedding, she'd kissed him this afternoon, and she' d laid her head on his shoulder during the movie and didn't seem to mind at all when he had his arm around her. Maybe she was starting to get over it. He hoped so. He sighed and rolled over onto his back and stared at the ceiling lost in thought. His contemplation was ended by the sound of the apartment door opening. He sat up and said, "Hello?"

"Hi," Rory said softly as she stepped into the bedroom area.

"What are you doing here? I figured you'd be in bed catching up on your beauty sleep before the big girly shopping trip tomorrow."

"I couldn't sleep. I'm sorry if I woke you," she said hoping that she hadn't made a mistake by coming here.

"You didn't. I was having a little trouble nodding off myself," He admitted.

"So, that was some party, huh?" She said awkwardly. She wasn't sure how to put into words what she wanted to say to him.

"Yeah, some party," he said just as awkwardly, wondering why she was paying him a visit in the middle of the night.

"Even my grandma kind of got into the spirit of things."

"Yeah," he said with a snicker. "You…uh…wanna sit?" He said indicating the empty side of the double bed, hoping that she didn't think that he was making an inappropriate move.

"Um…yeah," she said as she tentatively sat on the edge of the bed on the side that Luke used to occupy.

"So, you never did tell me what brings you here," He probed, hoping that it was just to see him.

"I told you, I couldn't sleep," she said hesitant about telling him why she couldn't sleep.

"I got that, but it doesn't explain why you're here of all places. I mean, you could have done all kinds of stuff to tire yourself out enough to get to sleep. Reading a book, taking a walk, watching TV, hell, even taking a sleeping pill, but you came here. Why?"

"I…um…I just wanted to see you," she said in a barely audible voice as she lowered her head, not daring to look him in the eye.

"I'm sorry. What was that?"

Rory hesitated on repeating herself and said instead, "You know what, I shouldn't have come here. It was impulsive and stupid and I should go."

She started to rise but Jess grabbed her hand and pulled her back."Rory, wait. It doesn't have to be like this. Look how much fun we had tonight, just hanging out. It was kinda like old times when we were in high school."

"I know. I had a good time tonight and it got me thinking that I've been horribly unfair to you."

"You think?" He looked at her with a smug grin on his face at hearing her admit it.

"I'm sorry," she said. "You must think I'm a horrible tease."

"I have never thought that about you. I know that you're not that kind of girl."

"I never meant to hurt you," she said finally allowing herself to look him in the eye. She was overwhelmed by the sincere look in his, indicating that he meant it.

"I know."

"I've just been so confused."

"I know that too," he said. "Break-ups are never easy."

"It's not the break-up that's had me confused," she confessed. "I know that I had to break up with Logan if I had any hope of being able to live with myself."

"Then, what is it that's got you confused?" he asked. His heart leapt a little at the hope that maybe there was something more to her feelings for him than just her need to curb the loneliness after her break-up.

"It's my feelings about you that have me confused," she finally admitted as she scooted closer to him on the bed. "I came here tonight to try to resolve them once and for all." She reached up and stroked his face. "I didn't realize how much I'd missed you until you showed up at my grandparents' house back in November." Jess reveled in her touch until she added, "You've been a good friend to me for a long time."

Jess pulled away from her and said angrily, "Is that what this is? A friend thing? Or maybe you're thinking a 'friends with benefits' thing?"

"No!" she cried. "That's not what I'm thinking! I'm trying to tell you what I'm thinking, if you'll let me get it out."

"So, get it out," he said gruffly as he folded his arms across his chest.

"I'm saying that I've missed you. Everything about you, the friend thing is just a part of that. I look at Mom and Luke and how happy they are in spite of all the roadblocks that have been hurled in their path and I think that a lot of the strength in their relationship comes from the fact that they were friends first. You and I have that too. We were friends first, long before we dated and even though we've been apart, that's never changed. Do you remember last weekend when I told you that I'd like to someday have a relationship like theirs?"

"Yeah, I remember," he said relaxing a little.

"Well, I'm thinking that maybe I could have that with you," she said with a sigh hoping that she hadn't said too much.

"Maybe? That's it, maybe? That's not good enough."

"I'm trying here. What more do you want from me?"

"You wanna know what I want? I want a real relationship with you! No maybes about it. If you're with me, I want to know that you're _with _me. I'm tired of this cat and mouse game we've been playing and I know that I'm partially to blame for that, but I've been doing everything I can to show you that I don't wanna play games anymore. I understand that you've been through a rough time lately, but that's not my fault! I love you and I want something with you that's real. If you came here tonight just to ease your loneliness or as a way to get back at Logan for cheating, then I'm sorry, but I can't be a part of that! I refuse to be your rebound!"

"You're not!" she cried as she let his words sink in. "You're not my rebound," she repeated a little quieter as she reached out to him again, holding his hand in hers. "I didn't come here tonight to use you to get back at Logan. He wasn't even on my mind when I decided to come here and I didn't come here to try to start a casual 'friends with benefits' thing. I've done that before and I know that I'm not the kind of girl who can do that. I came here tonight to try to figure out exactly what it is that I feel for you."

"Oh? And what conclusion did you come to?"

"I don't know. That's the problem. I know that there are lingering feelings there, but what I can't figure out is if it's a new feeling or just old feelings being stirred up since we've been hanging out so much lately."

"Does it matter?"

"Of course it matters."

"Why? You said you loved me once,"

"I know. I did."

"And I know without a doubt that I love you, so why does it matter if the feeling you're having now is the old love you used to have for me or a new one. Love is love, right?"

"Been talking to Matthew's poet?" she teased remembering their conversation in Philly.

He laughed and said, "Yeah, just trying to gain some perspective." He squeezed her hand and she leaned closer to him, laying her head on his shoulder again as she had during the movie earlier. He wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her against him.

"Did it help?" she asked.

"Don't know yet," he said. He looked down at her for a moment and asked, "Is this ok?" as he indicated their closeness.

"Yeah, I'd have told you if it wasn't." She reached up and again stroked his face and tentatively brushed her lips against his. Jess shuddered a little at the light contact and pulled back looking into her eyes and for the first time didn't see any doubt lingering in them. He took this as a good sign and initiated the next kiss and was rewarded with an enthusiastic response from her as she wound her arms around his neck and pulled him deeper into the kiss. When they broke apart both breathless, they simply looked at one another for a moment before she took the lead again and kissed him feverishly pushing on his shoulders to lower him back down on the bed stretching herself out atop him. He wrapped his arms around her and allowed her to work her will on him. She broke the kiss and turned her attention to the sensitive skin on his neck as she slid one hand under his tee and began to stroke his chest. He moaned at the touch of her hands and lips on his skin and rolled her over, pinning her beneath him as he ravenously plundered her mouth once again with his own, his hand roaming over her lithe body while hers explored his. His mind was racing. He couldn't believe that this was actually happening. He was so lost in the moment that he tried to ignore the alarm bells going off in his head, telling him that it was too soon. When the need for oxygen became too much to bear, he reluctantly pulled back panting breathlessly. He looked into her eyes once again and saw them burning with desire and that was when reality kicked in.

"Maybe we should slow this down," he said as he rolled away from her slightly still trying to catch his breath.

"What? Why?" Rory asked in bewilderment. "I…I thought you wanted this."

"I do, Rory. You have no idea how much, but I think that maybe we should wait." He flipped over onto his back.

Rory scooted closer to him, laid her head on his chest and said, "But I don't want to wait."

"I don't either, but I think we need to. We've just really started talking again. We haven't even been on a real date yet. If we let things go too far now, it could ruin things."

"It doesn't have to," she protested. "You never know, this could be something that we both need to get things together again."

"No," Jess said firmly. "As much as I want you, I don't want this to be something that we'll both regret in the morning."

"Are you saying you'd regret it?" She asked a little hurt by this statement.

"That's just it, Rory. I don't know, but I do know that I love you and I don't want to take the chance that this will change things too much too soon. When and if you and I ever…um…make love I want it to be because we're both ready for it and not just to satisfy a physical need. I want it to be about us."

"I get it," she said. "So, I guess I should go. Remove the temptation."

"You don't have to," he said as he lightly stroked her back. "You can stay. I mean, unless you think you can't control yourself," he added with a grin. "I know I'm irresistible."

She smacked him playfully and said, "Oh, I can control myself. The question is, can you?"

"I think I just proved that I can."

"Ok, then I'll stay."

"Good," he said with a smile as he softly kissed her lips. "We should probably get some sleep."

"Yeah," she said as she kicked her shoes off and snuggled into his embrace finally able to quiet her restless mind enough to drift off to sleep.


	43. Chapter 43

AN: Sorry for the long delay in updates on this story. I'm afraid with all of the OT hours I've been working and a second promotion in less than a year, (WOO-HOO) my poor muse got tired of waiting and abandoned me. I want to say thanks for your patience. I also need to send out a special thanks to Javajunkie86 for being my emergency muse and helping me break my writer's block!

Lanie

* * *

The next day, as usual Luke was the first one up. He slipped out of bed and padded down the stairs to the kitchen to begin making breakfast for his family before they went their separate ways. He walked straight to the refrigerator to take out eggs and bacon, setting them on the counter before starting a pot of coffee, decaf of course, since he wasn't about to let Lorelai drink the real stuff while she was pregnant. While setting up the coffee maker, he noticed that the door to Rory's room was open. He looked at it curiously thinking that she didn't usually leave her door open while she was sleeping. He flipped the switch on the coffee pot and walked to the open door to glance inside. He heart skipped a beat as he noticed that she wasn't in her bed. He knew she hadn't gone to the bathroom as he'd just gotten up and she hadn't been there. He stepped further into the room and realized that she couldn't have gone back to New Haven because the overnight bag she'd brought home for the weekend was still there along with her purse. _Maybe she got up early and she's talking to April, _he said to himself as he took the stairs two at a time and headed toward his daughter's room. He opened the room to the attic door a crack and saw April in her bed sound asleep.

Luke walked back down the stairs toward the room he shared with Lorelai and peered inside just to make sure he hadn't missed her sneaking into the bathroom while he'd been sleeping. Then he mentally kicked himself for his stupidity, knowing that she couldn't have. He and Lorelai had made sure to lock the bedroom door before going to bed last night after the incident the weekend before. He glanced down at his peacefully sleeping fiancée and wondered if he should wake her. He decided against it until he knew what was going on. He didn't want her to panic like he was starting to do. He walked back down the stairs and toward the front door thinking that maybe she'd needed some fresh air and was out on the porch. He began to panic even more when he realized her Toyota was not in the driveway, yet her belongings were still in the house. It took him no more than five minutes to get dressed, slip his shoes on and get into his truck in search of his missing step-daughter-to-be.

As he neared the town square, he spotted the missing Prius parked in front of his diner. He pulled his Chevy into its customary spot just by the diner's front door, roughly shifted it into park and got out of the truck slamming the door behind him, not stopping until he'd flung open the door to his prized restaurant, nearly running over old Mrs. Cassini, who was on her way out. When she saw the look of pure fury etched on Luke's face, she did an abrupt about-face and sat back down in the seat she'd just vacated. She knew that look on Luke's face well. It meant something was about to go down and since neither Babette nor Miss Patty were there to witness it, she felt it was her duty to be there to report to them on whatever they were about to miss out on.

Luke had barely stormed in the front door when he saw his nephew slipping from behind the curtain and reaching for a coffee cup and filling it with the steaming liquid from a freshly made pot. "Since when do you drink coffee?" Luke asked his nephew accusingly.

Jess looked across the counter at his uncle, knowing he was busted, but trying to shrug it off, "What? A man can change, can't he?" As if to prove his point, he took a sip of the dark beverage and swallowed hard, trying to force it down.

"Yeah, you look like you're really enjoying that coffee," Luke said sardonically. "That wouldn't by any chance be because it wasn't intended for you?"

"Look. Luke" Jess said as he tried to step back in front of the curtain as if to shield Rory from the firestorm he knew was about to hit her. "Nothing hap-"he started, but was got off by his uncle pushing him away from the curtain.

"Out of my way," Luke growled as he did this and headed up the stairs to his old home.

As he walked through the front door he heard Rory's voice calling out, "Jess?"

"No, not Jess," Luke said gruffly as he rounded the corner to his former bedroom. His jaw dropped at the sight before him as he saw Rory in the double bed wearing the dress shirt he'd seen on his nephew the night before. "AW, Jeez," he cried and turned quickly. He saw Rory's clothes strewn across the couch and tossed them at her. "Get dressed and meet me downstairs. We need to have a talk!"

Rory was so shocked by his tone that she didn't hesitate in doing what she was told. In all the years she'd known him, he'd never raised his voice like that to her. Sure she'd heard him shout at Taylor and her father and occasionally Kirk, but he'd never been that way with her. She dressed quickly and started toward the door, then hesitated. _What am I doing? He's got no right to bark at me like that,_' she thought as she slowly made her way down the stairs getting madder by the minute.

Rory walked into the diner to see Luke shouting at Jess, "Just what the hell were you thinking! I thought that after all the times that we've talked about this very thing that you'd have had more sense than this!"

Hearing Luke berating Jess like that when he'd done nothing wrong set Rory off, "What the hell were _you _thinking storming in there in a rage and acting like you've got the right to talk to me like you just did!"

"I've got every right when I walk in and see you half-dressed and Romeo here's fetching your morning coffee!" Several set of ear perked up at the mention of Rory being half-dressed. Several townies had gathered at _Luke's _before their Sunday church services.

"At least I _was _half-dressed, which is more than I can say for you when you when I walked in on you groping my mother last weekend!"

"That was a completely different situation!"

"How is it different? Oh, I know because we weren't actually doing anything! This was completely innocent, unlike what you were doing with my mother!"

"If it's so innocent, then why were your clothes thrown all over the place and why were you wearing his shirt?"

"She's telling the truth, Uncle Luke," Jess interjected trying to defend Rory.

"I'll deal with you in a minute," Luke snapped at his nephew before turning to Rory expectantly awaiting her answer.

"I needed something to sleep in!"

"Here's a thought! Try your own pajamas in your own bed!"

"Why are getting so bent out of shape? We didn't do anything wrong! All we did was talk! You know what? I don't even know why I'm defending myself to you! This is none of your business!"

"It sure the hell is my business. You may not be my kid by blood, but I'm the closest thing to a father either one of you has ever had! Neither one of your worthless fathers ever gave a damn!"

"Don't bring my father into this!"

"Are you defending him now? After he abandoned you and let you down for years?"

"No, I'm not, but at least he accepts that I'm an adult!"

"If you're such an adult, why don't you start acting like it? Take some responsibility for your actions! Adults don't just take off and leave without at least leaving a note so somebody knows where they're at! You had me worried sick! And the way I see it, you father sees you as an adult because he was never around when you were a child so he doesn't know you as anything but an adult! He has no memories of you when you were younger because he wasn't there! I was!"

"I know that, Luke, but that doesn't give you the right to dictate how I live my life! I'm plenty old enough to make my own choices!"

"Yeah, you've made some _fine_ choices in the last couple of years! Sleeping with a married man, stealing a yacht, dropping out of school, and let's not forget moving in with your grandparents and breaking your mother's heart! Now, you just broke up with someone a month ago and you're already jumping into bed with someone else!"

"It's not like you've got any room to talk about making the right choices! Let's look at your recent history! Marrying a woman you didn't really love on a whim, beating up a car and going to jail, hiding the fact that you've got a daughter from your fiancée for two months and breaking her heart in the process and while we're at it, let's not forget to mention the fact that you royally screwed up by keeping your kid away from her when she should have been getting to know her future step-daughter!"

"You think I don't know that I screwed up with your mom? I'm trying to make it up to her every day for the way I hurt her, but that's got nothing to do with what's going on here! You pointing out my past mistakes doesn't make a damn bit of difference! At least I've learned from my mistakes! You haven't! You're still acting just as impulsively as you did the night you stole that yacht with Logan!"

"Forget this! I'm outta' here," Rory said and stormed out the door toward her car.

"Why'd you have to be so hard on her?" Jess demanded.

"Don't start with me! I'm not thrilled with you either! After all your talk last night about not pushing and 'no means no' this is what you do!"

"I didn't do anything and neither did she! She was telling the truth, but you wouldn't let her explain what happened!"

"Oh, I _know _what happened," he said with a scowl.

"No, you don't! I know this looks bad, but I swear I didn't touch her! Not in the way that you think anyway! All we did was talk and then we fell asleep together. That's it!"

"If that's it, then why is it that when I walked up there, she was half-naked? All she was wearing was your shirt, for God's sake!"

"I let her wear it because she woke up halfway through the night uncomfortable from sleeping in her jeans. God! Why am I even telling you any of this? Rory's right! She's an adult and so am I! This is none of your business!"

"Not my business? She left home in the middle of the night to do God knows what with you up there in my apartment, in my bed," Luke shouted with an impatient gesture toward the curtain.

"I thought your bed was at the house with your fiancée," Jess countered. "Or did you forget that you no longer live upstairs?"

"No, I didn't forget! I know where I live, but the fact that I don't live there anymore, doesn't mean it's my still mine! Everything up there is mine, the couch that her clothes were flung all over, and the bed that the two of you slept in, everything!"

"You gave me permission to stay there, remember?"

"I remember, but that was _you, _not her! If I'd known you were gonna pull something like this, I'd have told you to go stay at your mom's house!"

"I didn't do anything! She came to me! I didn't go to her! I was trying to go to sleep when she crawled in bed with me, not the other way around!"

"So that makes it ok to take advantage of her when she's in a vulnerable emotional state?"

"I didn't' take advantage of her. I didn't do _anything! _Why won't you listen to me? Or her, for that matter?"

"You honestly expect me to believe that you spent the night together and didn't do anything but talk when the two of you were all over each other at the house last night?"

"Look who's talking! What were you and Lorelai doing last night? I mean, you practically had your hand up her skirt!"

"What! I did not and even if I did, so what? We're adults and both well over the legal age of consent!"

"So are we! Like you so bluntly pointed out last night, we're not teenagers anymore! Nothing happened last night, but if it had, it's still none of your business! We're adults and it's high time you started treating us both like adults!"

"You know what? I've had enough of this! Just give me my keys and get back to Philly where you belong and leave Rory alone!" Luke knew he was whipped. No matter what he felt about the situation, Jess was right. They _were _both adults.

"Fine!" Jess reached into his pocket and fished out the keys threw them to his uncle. "Here! I'm just gonna go upstairs and get my stuff together, then I'll be out of your hair!" Jess turned his back on Luke and stomped up the stairs.

Luke was left there staring open-mouthed after his uncle and noticed half the town staring at him from their various seats in the diner. "What? Somebody got something to say?" Mrs. Cassini, Reverend Skinner, Rabbi Barans and the others gathered there quickly turned away an engrossed themselves in their food or the menus on the table to avoid being the subject of one of Luke's famous rants. "That's what I thought, "Luke grumbled as he turned and walked out the door toward his truck, determined to have another talk with his surrogate daughter.

When Luke walked in the front door of the crap shack he dropped his keys on the entry table and headed straight to Rory's room where he found her packing. "What are you doing?" he asked her.

"What does it look like I'm doing?"She snapped back without stopping her task.

"So, now you're just gonna bail on your mom and April because you're mad at me?"

"I'm not bailing on them! I'm still going on this shopping trip, but I'm not coming back to Stars Hollow after we're done. I have a ton of stuff to do at the paper since we put out the final issue of the school year tomorrow."

"Nice excuse," Luke said hotly.

"It's the truth, Luke! I _do _have a ton of stuff to do on the paper, not to mention I have to start studying for finals! I've been spending so much time here that I haven't been doing as much school stuff on the weekends as I used to!"

"Well, I'm sorry spending time with your family's been such a burden on you," he spat. "You worrying about getting your school stuff done didn't seem to bother you when you were sleeping with Jess last night!"

"I wasn't sleeping with Jess! Not that way you mean, anyway! Yes, I slept with him, but I didn't _sleep _with him! We just talked and went to sleep! Nothing else!"

"Well, I find that a little hard to believe since you were kissing him here last night and you two looked pretty comfortable all cuddled up together during the movie! Not to mention the fact that when I found you, all you were wearing was his shirt!"

"So what? Mom runs around in your shirts all the time!"

"And do you know when she starting doing that? It was right after we slept together for the first time, so you can see my concern here!"

"Ok, so we did a little more than talk! There was some kissing, a little making out, but Jess stopped things before they went too far!"

"Jess stopped things?" Luke was stunned. After the talk he'd had with Jess about Rory being the one to pull back and how frustrated he was with it, he couldn't believe that he'd been the one to put the brakes on, if that was what actually happened. He still wasn't sure after seeing Rory wearing only his shirt.

"Yeah, he did. If you really want the truth, I would've have had sex with him if he hadn't had the self-control to stop and suggest that we need to think things out before taking that step." She finally took a break from her packing to stare at Luke challengingly as if daring him to say something else.

"What?"

"That's right, Luke. I'm a big slut."

"Don't say that!"

"Why not? That's what you're thinking, isn't it?"

"No, that's not what I'm thinking! I just think you should use a little better judgment, that's all!"

"Or I'll turn out to be a big slut, just like Mom?"

"Do _not _bring your mother into this!"

As if on cue, Lorelai walked into the room once again clad in one of Luke's flannels and said, "What's going on in here? I heard the shouting from upstairs."

Luke and Rory just glared at each other and both said, "Nothing."

There was silence in the room for a moment as neither Luke nor Rory wanted to fill Lorelai in on the details of their argument and Lorelai just stared at both of them trying to figure out what was causing the tension in the room. Luke broke the silence, by saying, "I need to get breakfast ready. We've all got a busy day ahead of us." He walked into the kitchen returning to his abandoned bacon and eggs, reaching into the cabinet for a skillet which he slammed onto the stove with way more force than was necessary.

Lorelai glance out the door at her fiancée slamming things around in the kitchen, and then looked back at her daughter, noticing the sullen expression on her face. She closed the door to Rory's bedroom and said, "So, you wanna fill me in or am I supposed to guess what's got you two at each other's throats at an ungodly early hour?"

"I don't wanna talk about it," she said stubbornly. She didn't want to admit to her mother that she'd spent the night with Jess. She knew that she'd never really cared for him.

"Come on, Sweets. You know you can always tell me anything. If you don't tell me what's going on, you know I'll find a way to cajole the whole story out of Luke," she said with a grin.

"I'm sure you will," Rory said still fuming. She knew by the suggestive tone in her mother's voice exactly what method of cajoling she was talking about and that just increased her fury at Luke. What right did he have to judge her about spending the night with Jess when he'd been sleeping with her mom for quite some time? He'd even gotten her pregnant. She was happy for them, but why couldn't he see that she just wanted a little happiness for herself? Why was that so wrong?

"Hey, what's with the tone?" Lorelai was still mentally scratching her head wondering why the two people she loved most in the world had been screaming at each other then clammed up when she asked about it. "I just want to know what's going on."

"Just ask Luke. Or better yet, take him upstairs and _cajole _the story out of him," Rory sneered.

"What's your damage, Heather?"

Rory had to chuckle a little at the _Heathers _reference that she'd once used on her mother when she'd first begun her relationship with Luke. She thought it rather fitting considering she was in a similar situation. While she hadn't intended for it to happen, she and Jess had kind of started something at a wedding just like her mom and Luke had. He'd sort of taken over as her date after her dad had made a complete ass of himself by over-indulging. Knowing that her mother would get her meaning she said, "I think I'm dating Jess."

"What? How did this happen?" Lorelai sat down on the side of her daughter's bed a little thrown but if she was really honest with herself she had to admit that she'd seen things heading this way.

"Well, I didn't tell you everything that's been happening with us lately. After you guys left the wedding last weekend, Jess and I started really talking and we danced and laughed and just had a really good time together." Rory sat down on the bed beside her mother.

"I know all this. Skip ahead a little," she said getting impatient burning with curiosity about how that had led to a champion shouting match between her future-husband and her daughter.

"I'm getting there, Mom," she said knowing how impatient her mother could get."The thing is, when he walked me home that night, I just kept flashing back to all the times he would walk me home when we were dating in high school and I kissed him. Just a kiss on the cheek, completely innocent, but it kind of got me wanting more. Then last night during April's party, I wanted to tell him how grateful I was to him for whatever he said to Luke to get the two of you back on track and I kissed him again, this time, not so innocent. It got a little…intense. Like high-school-making-out intense."

"Wow," Lorelai said at a loss for words, which was unusual for her.

"I'm not done yet," Rory said.

"Wait, there's more?" Lorelai's eyes widened. Now, she was starting to get concerned that her daughter was getting in over her head and wondered if that what had sparked the argument with Luke.

"Yeah, I…uh…I spent the night with Jess. We-"

"You did what," Lorelai exclaimed before Rory could explain that nothing happened. "Rory, I'm not sure how I feel about this. You just broke up with Logan a month ago."

"I know that, but-"

Lorelai cut her off again by saying, "Please tell me you at least found the condoms that Luke left in the nightstand, so I know that you guys were safe."

"Yes, Mom, we were safe, mainly because we didn't _do_ anything," she said a little offended by her mother also assuming that she'd had sex with Jess just like Luke had.

Lorelai breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Sorry, Kid. When you said you spent the night with Jess, I just assumed..."

"I know. So did Luke. That's what we were fighting about. He got up before I came home and found me at his old place and went nuclear on both me and Jess."

"Well, Hon, he just loves you and doesn't want to see you do something you'll regret."

"But he wouldn't believe me when I told him nothing happened. He just kept going on and on about how I needed to be more responsible and show better judgment."

"Well, he's not wrong."

"You're taking his side," Rory asked incredulously.

"I'm not taking sides here. I just want what's best for you. I want you to be happy, but I also want you to be careful. You just got out of a serious relationship. I want you to make sure you've given yourself enough time to heal before you start something else up with Jess."

"Are you sure you're not just saying that because it's Jess? You never did like me dating him in high school."

"This has nothing with Jess personally. He seems like he's grown up a lot and he's nowhere near as scary as he used to be. If it's Jess you want to be with and this is what's gonna make you happy, I'm on board, but I want you to be really, really careful. And I mean Kim's antique's you-break-you-buy kind of careful."

"You think I won't be? Do you think I'm not mature enough to handle this?"

"I'm not saying that. I'm saying there are a lot of things that can go wrong here. First of all, you have to be sure that what you're feeling with Jess is something that's real and not just old feelings being stirred up since you've been hanging out so much. Second, there's the fact that at least for the next couple of weeks until he graduates, you're gonna have to deal with seeing Logan around campus. Third, there's the whole long-distance thing. Jess has his own thing going on in Philly now with a business to run and you're still in school. That's gonna make seeing each other a little rough. So, with all that in mind, how do you feel about this? Do you want to be dating Jess?"

It was Rory's turn to breathe a sigh of relief that her mother was being at least a little more open-minded than Luke about this. "Yeah, I think I do."

While Lorelai was wheedling information out of Rory about her argument with Luke, April walked into the kitchen to find her father in a fury slamming pans around and making a big mess as he fixed breakfast. She watched for a moment as he jabbed at the bacon in the frying pan. "What'd that bacon ever do to you," she quipped.

"Are you trying to be cute," he asked her with a stony glare.

"Jeez, I was just making a joke," she said a little alarmed at his tone of voice. He'd never snapped at her like that before.

"I'm not in the mood for jokes," he said as he turned back to the stove.

"Ok," she said as she reached for the coffee pot and poured herself a cup.

"What do you think you're doing?"

"Um…Getting a cup of coffee? It's decaf, right?"

"You drink coffee?" He was astonished by this. She was only thirteen. "When did this start? Please, don't tell me this is Lorelai's influence."

"No, Dad, it's not," she said as she took a sip of her coffee. "I've been drinking coffee for about a year now. It started with those bottled frappuccino things, but those are a little too sweet for my taste, so I switched to regular coffee instead, usually decaf though."

"I don't believe this! You're way too young to be drinking coffee!"

"Rory told me she's been drinking coffee since she was ten!"

"So, you want to follow in her footsteps now? Drinking coffee, going to Yale, what else? Are you going to start sleeping with boys too?"

"What? Where the hell did that come from?"

"Hey, watch your language!"

"No," she said slamming her coffee cup down on the counter. "I wanna know what the hell you meant by that!"

"Well, you took that sex-ed class. That's gotta mean you know all about it!"

"I thought we already covered this! That was purely for the scientific education, an extension of biology, which is my primary focus, in case you've forgotten!"

"Just please tell me you're still a virgin!" He was starting to freak out a little. While he'd teased her last night about Freddy, amused that she had a crush, now he wasn't so sure he liked the idea if it would one day lead to her acting like Rory was now.

"Of course I am, Dad! I've never even kissed a boy, let alone anything else! You saw how I was on the field trip. I was too embarrassed to even talk to the boy I like. What makes you think if I can't even talk to him, that I'd be doing anything else? Besides, I'm way too young to be thinking about anything like that!"

"Damn right, you are, but you said yourself that doesn't stop other girls your age. That young girls just like you are running around getting pregnant!" He knew he was being irrational and that April was a lot more sensible when it came to the opposite sex, but he still couldn't help worrying about it all the same.

"I'm not other girls! I've got way too much I want to do with my life to make that kind of mistake! You should know that! I'm not Lorelai either!"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I've done the math, Dad. Lorelai just turned thirty-eight and Rory's twenty-one, almost twenty-two. That means that Lorelai got pregnant with her when she was only fifteen, just two years older than I am now. Now, I'm thinking this attitude doesn't really have anything to do with me, so do you want to tell me what bug crawled up your ass?"

"Would you cool it with the language already?

"I will as soon as you stop talking to me like that and tell me what's going on."

"I don't wanna talk about it," Luke grumbled.

"Fine, don't, but whatever's got you in this mood, stop taking it out on me." She reached for her coffee cup and sat down at the table and stared down into the blackness of her coffee, not looking at her father.

Luke sighed and realized she was right. He removed the skillet from the stove, sat in the seat next to her and said, "I'm sorry, Kid. You're right. This has nothing to do with you. I'm just a little freaked out right now, but not over anything you did. I just…I haven't had you in my life that long, so I guess I just keep thinking of you as a little girl when you're really not little. I don't have a clue here what you're old enough to do and what you're not, so the coffee thing kind of threw me. I guess we still need to get to know each other a little better, huh?"

"We're getting there," she said looking up from her coffee cup. She was beginning to see that as much progress as they'd made, she still didn't really know how to gauge what was going on in her father's head. She wondered if maybe she'd made a mistake if badgering her mother into letting her spend the weekend when there was still so much she didn't know about her father. "Maybe it was too soon to do the weekend thing," she said sadly.

"No, I don't want you thinking that. I've loved every minute of having you here this weekend. I'm sorry I was such a jerk to you. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. The bad mood is about Rory, not you."

"What did she do to get you all fired up like that? I thought you guys were really close."

"We are, normally. We're just having a little disagreement right now."

"Is it about Jess? I couldn't help but notice there seems to be some kind of thing between them."

"Have I mentioned that you're too damn perceptive?"

"Once or twice, and maybe you should watch your language too," she said with a giggle. "You don't want to set a bad example for your impressionable young daughter."

"Impressionable, my ass," he said. "I don't think there's anyone in the world that could influence you to do anything you don't want to do."

"Would you cool it with the language already," she teased throwing er father's words back in his face.

"You're a spoiled brat, you know that," he said affectionately as he reached over and brushed her unruly hair out of her face.

"Yeah, I know," she said with a smile. "That just comes with the territory when you're an only child."

"Well, you're not going to be an only child for much longer," he pointed out.

"I know. It's kind of unfair that I just found you and now I have to share you," she said. She was happy about the idea of being a big sister, but also worried that it would cut into her time with her dad. She knew that babies required a lot of attention and they were about to have two of them.

"Hey, I'll always be here for you, no matter what. If Lorelai and I have ten kids together, I'll still make sure that we get our time together. You're still my first-born."

"I know, but you're gonna get to do stuff with them that you never did with me."

"I wish I could've been there for all that stuff with you, but we can't go back in time and change that. All we can do is make sure we make the best of the here and now. I love you, Kid," he said as he wrapped his arms around her and hugged her.

"I love you too, Dad," she said for the first time hugging him back. She was glad he'd said it first. She'd wanted to say it for a while now, but didn't know how he'd react.

"Glad to hear it," he said with a smile to reassure her as he pulled back to look at his daughter as he saw the uncertainty etched on her face.

"Good," she said smiling back. "Now, get back to that stove and finish fixing your spoiled brat some breakfast," she said in a playfully demanding tone.

"You got it," he said with a smile. He returned to the breakfast he'd begun just as Lorelai exited Rory's room with a worried look on her face, closing the door behind her to give Rory her privacy.

"Hey, babe," she said as she reached for a coffee mug like her step-daughter-to-be just had. "Are you ok?"

"Rory tell you what's going on?"

"Yeah, she did."

"Then you know I'm not ok. I think she made a mistake last night," Luke groused with a glance at his daughter not really wanting her to know what was going on.

"I'm just gonna go get dressed," April said awkwardly sensing that her father and future-step-mother needed to have a grown-up conversation. "Just…uh…call me when breakfast is ready," she added as she headed up the stairs to give them the privacy they needed.

"She said nothing happened and I believe her. "

"You believe her? Well, if you'd seen what I saw, you wouldn't be so quick to take her word for it."

"Luke, I know my kid and if she said nothing happened with Jess last night, then nothing happened. I know you don't like the fact that she's not your little girl anymore, but it's something that you're just gonna have to face."

"Who are you kidding? She never was _my _little girl to begin with. She was always yours. Yours and Christopher's," he said bitterly.

"But you were the only dad she ever had when she was growing up," Lorelai pointed out. "You were always there when she needed a male role model."

"And what a prize I turned out to be," he said sardonically.

"Hey, you _are _a prize."

"No, I'm not. Let's face it, Lorelai. I was right all along. I'm a failure as a father. I couldn't get Jess on the right track and keep him there. I couldn't stop him from dropping out of school! It wasn't until he was out of my care that he started making something of himself, I can't get April to stop swearing, and now Rory is sneaking out of the house in the middle of the night to do God knows what with Jess. What the hell are you doing having kids with me? I'll just end up screwing them up too," he said and turned away from her with another violent jab at the bacon he was cooking.

"Ok, first of all, you did get Jess on the right track. Do you think he'd be as successful as he is now, if it weren't for your influence? He pretty much told you he owed you when he gave you that check in Philly."

"That was about the money," Luke argued.

"No, it wasn't. He didn't have to give you that check. All the money you spent on him while he lived with you was just you fulfilling your responsibility as his guardian. The check was a symbolic gesture of everything else you'd done for him, the things that can't be measured by a dollar amount."

"Whatever," Luke said still not looking at her.

"As for the April swearing thing, her mother admitted herself that she's been doing it for a while and even she can't seem to break her of the habit and she lives with her full-time. As far as Rory is concerned you've been an incredible dad to her. You did all the stuff with her that a dad is supposed to do, unlike Christopher. Sure, he's spending time with her now and throwing money at her as if that can make up for twenty years of neglect, but you are the one who was always there."

"A lot of good it did me. You didn't see the look on her face or hear the things she said to me. All the times she came to me for fatherly advice and she basically just said 'who the hell are you to be telling me how to live my life'? It hurt. I failed her."

"If you did, then so did I."

Luke finally turned to look at her. "What? You're cracked!"

"I'm just saying if you're a failure as a father then that makes me a failure as a mother."

"No, you're an amazing mother!"

"And you, my friend, are an amazing father to both Rory and April, and in a way, Jess too," She took his hand and placed it over the tiny bump that had made its appearance in her figure a week ago and said, "And I know without a doubt that you're going to be an equally amazing father to these two."

Luke lightly stroked her stomach thinking about the two tiny lives that they'd created together and sighed worrying about the future thinking that if things were this crazy now, how was it going to be when the twins were born? "If I'm such an amazing father, how come I can't exert any control over my kids?"

"Welcome to parenting," Lorelai said with a laugh. "One thing I've learned with Rory is that you never really have any control over your kids. All you can really do is love them and try to guide them in the right direction, but ultimately they're their own people and they're gonna screw up. When they do, you still have to love them, even though you may be disappointed with them. Look at me; I've been disappointing my parents for years."

"Hey, you're not a disappointment to your parents. Not anymore. Your dad told me how proud he is of you and your accomplishments; of how far you've come from being a single teenage mom and what a wonderful job you did raising Rory."

"I sometimes wonder though how well I would have done with Rory if I hadn't had you to help me. Even though we weren't together then, I always knew that you'd be there for me and my kid. You were just as much a part of raising her as I was."

"I just don't want to see her doing something she'll regret and get her heart broken again. She's already been through so much."

"As much as we hate it, Luke, she's a grown-up and we have to let her make her own decisions whether we like them or not."

"Yeah, I get it," he grumbled still not liking it, but he had to admit that she was right.

"Good, now get that breakfast finished. Your kids need to eat," she said as she planted a light kiss on his lips.

"_Our _kids," he corrected feeling a little better about the situation.

"I'm gonna go let April know that it's safe to come back down now," she said and headed up the stairs.

Luke was transferring the overly-abused bacon to a paper-towel-laden plate to let some of the grease drain off when Rory tentatively stepped out of her room, carrying her overnight bag and her laptop's carrying case. She glanced at Luke, still upset that he hadn't believed her assertion that she and Jess had agreed to take things a little slower than he thought. "Hey," she said hesitantly.

"Hey," he said just as awkwardly.

"I'm…um…just…um…taking these things out to my car."

"Yeah, ok." She started to walk the direction of the front door when Luke went after her saying, "Rory, wait." She stopped but didn't turn to face him. "Look, about me losing my temper…"

She turned, set her bags down on the couch, and crossed her arms across her chest defiantly and said, "Yes?"

"I shouldn't have blown up on you the way I did," he said.

"No, you shouldn't have," she said in a hostile tone still fuming over him treating her like she was some cheap floozy.

"You have no idea what it was like for me to see you like that. I mean, I know you're not a virgin anymore, but I…uh…I just watched you get your heart broken, going through all that crap with Logan and I don't want to see that happen again. I know that you're an adult, but that doesn't mean that I'm ever gonna stop worrying about you. Plus, Jess has broken your heart over and over again. I love the kid as if he was mine, but that doesn't mean that I trust him with you given his track record."

"How about putting a little trust in me, then," she suggested hotly. She was not ready to forgive and forget. She had told him that nothing happened repeatedly and he still didn't believe her.

"I'll try," he said.

"Good," she said. "Now, I need to get this stuff out there, so it'll be ready when we go to New Haven." She picked up her things and made her way to the door.

"Um…ok," He said. He had more that he wanted to say to her, but he couldn't make himself get the words out. "I'm just gonna get breakfast finished. It should be done by the time you get back inside."

"Ok," she said.

Luke went back to the kitchen kicking himself for leaving things unspoken. He hated this tension between him and Rory. He hated that he'd been so hot-headed that he'd created that tension, yet he couldn't seem to undo it. Lorelai and April re-joined him in the kitchen soon followed by Rory. They sat through breakfast rather awkwardly, avoiding the subject as they made idle chit-chat about their plans for the day. The girls were going to take Rory's car to New Haven and meet Emily there and planned on later meeting him and Richard for lunch at the club in Hartford and Luke planned on driving them back to Stars Hollow in the truck, so Rory could take her car back to school with her. When breakfast was finished and the kitchen cleaned up, they proceeded to get ready for their day with Rory once again retreating to her room and Luke and Lorelai to theirs, while April, who was already dressed for their shopping trip began packing up her overnight bag since she knew her mother would be picking her up in the evening.

Lorelai walked into the bathroom to put her make-up on and found Luke shaving,"Hey, what's with the face?"

"What? I'm not making a face," Luke said in confusion.

"No, you're making it visible. That's something you don't usually do, not even for me."

"Hey, I shaved for your birthday date," he pointed out.

"Yeah, but that was a special occasion and a special date. You and my dad got something going on the side I don't know about," she asked in a light teasing tone.

"No, he's not my type," he said with a grin.

"Well, I mean you two have been spending an awful lot of time together lately and he did have two women fighting over him when he was at Yale," She teased.

"I'm just thinking that I'm going to be in your parents' fancy country club and I don't want my appearance to be an embarrassment to your dad, especially since I know my golf game will be embarrassing enough all by itself." Luke finished his task, grabbed a towel to wipe the remaining shaving cream from his face and said,"Well?"

Lorelai turned to him and brushed her fingers across his unusually smooth face, "Nice, but I kind of miss the stubble." She kissed him softly and returned to her make-up while he walked into the bedroom to finish getting dressed.

"It'll be back before long," he said as he selected a shirt from the closet to wear with his dress slacks.

"You're such a suck-up," she called from the bathroom.

"Not sucking up, just trying not to humiliate myself in front of your parents' snotty friends."

"I get that," she said as she emerged from the bathroom and said, "So, how to I look? This dress doesn't make me look too fat, does it?"

"You look beautiful, and not fat," he stated. "I love the way you look right now. I've told you that a million times, but for what it's worth, I don't think you need the make-up."

"You are too sweet," she said as she kissed him again reaching up to stroke his face as he slipped her arms around her and pulled her closer, deepening the kiss.

"Gross," April's disgusted voice came from the doorway who was standing there along with Rory. "Can't you guys keep your hands to yourself for more than two seconds?"

Luke and Lorelai broke apart and laughed a little at the revolted expression on April's face. She soon made her way to the bathroom to do her own make-up while Rory remained in the doorway in a stony silence. Luke broke the awkward silence by saying, "You know what, I'm gonna go get my golf clubs out of the garage and get them loaded into the truck," he said quickly exiting the room to avoid another confrontation with Rory.

Lorelai looked at her daughter sadly and said, "Hon, are you ok?"

"No, I'm not. I think it's wrong that Luke thinks it's perfectly fine for the two of you to be all over each other at all hours of the day and night, but I'm not allowed to have that kind of thing with Jess."

"Hon, he's just worried about you, but he wants you to be happy"

"Why can't he see that I _could _be happy with Jess? He made me happy before."

"Yeah, but he also broke your heart before. I think that's what concerns Luke. He doesn't want you to get your heart broken again. I don't want that either."

"Luke broke your heart when he kept you separate from his life with April. Does that mean that you weren't willing to give him another chance?"

"No, it doesn't and I'm not saying you shouldn't give Jess another chance, but Luke's…well… Luke. He doesn't give second chances easily. You saw how hard it was for him to swallow his pride and give me another chance when we broke up last year after I lied to him about that tequila thing with your dad."

"But he did and look at where you guys are now. You're getting married in less than a month and you're really working on getting things together. Why can't he give me and Jess that same chance?"

"Just give him time, Hon. He'll come around."

"Yeah, maybe," she said. "I've got to finish getting ready." She joined April in the bathroom leaving Lorelai once again staring after her worriedly.

Luke had just finished loading his way-too-expensive golf clubs into his truck when his nephew's car pulled into the driveway. Luke slammed the tailgate shut as Jess turned the engine off and climbed out of his car.

"What do you want," Luke asked as he turned toward his nephew.

"Look, I'm heading back to Philly," Jess said. "I just wanted to say good-bye to Rory first."

"Good-bye?" Luke asked questioning his nephew's motivation. "Good-bye as in the 'I'll-see-you-later' sense or in the 'it's-not-gonna-work-out-have-a-nice-life' way?"

"How is that even your business?"

"It's my business because I love both of you too much to see either one of you get hurt again."

Jess sighed and realized that his uncle wasn't going to give him a reprieve, "If you must know, it's the see-you-later kind of good-bye. When we were talking, Rory and I agreed to keep in touch and see where this goes. We even talked about making a plan to have a real date when we can work out our schedules. Now, are you going to let me talk to her or not?"

"Sure, fine, whatever. But just so we're clear, if you hurt her or bail on her again, I will personally hunt you down and kill you. Comprende?"

"Message received," Jess stated.

"Good," Luke said and walked back into the house and up the stairs. He walked into the bedroom to find Lorelai sitting on the edge of the bed fastening her strappy sandals. "Is Rory still up here?"

"In the bathroom," Lorelai answered.

"Thanks," he said as he walked into the bathroom to find his girls talking and giggling over their make-up. "Rory, there's a hoodlum outside who wants to say good-bye to you," he said tensely trying to keep in mind what Lorelai had said about letting her make her own choices.

"Thanks," Rory said just as tensely, knowing that if she went to say good-bye to Jess, it would irk Luke even further, but also unwilling to give up on the chance to build on the progress that she and Jess had made last night. She looked at the blank look on her surrogate father's face unable to determine how to read what he was thinking about the situation. She knew that he wasn't happy about it, but he'd at least come to tell that Jess was here, so maybe he was on his way to acceptance. She decided to take a chance on incurring his anger once again and practically flew down the stairs to go see her potential boyfriend.

"That was a nice thing you did," Lorelai said as Luke exited the bathroom. "You could've just told the little punk to get lost."

"You don't know how much I wanted to, but Rory's already pissed at me. I don't wanna piss her off even more by not telling her that Jess was here."

"Language, Dad," April called from the bathroom trying to lighten the mood a little.

"You've got no room to talk, Brat," he teased back. "You could give a sailor a run for his money."

"Yeah, Mom's always on me about my language, too, but it's not like either of you are any better," she said as she emerged from the bathroom. "How do I look?"

"Very pretty, but way too grown up for my liking," he said. "Just do me a favor and try not to grow up too fast, huh?"

"You got it," she said as she left the room and headed for her own to collect her purse.

Lorelai smiled as she pondered the interaction between Luke and his girls, "I'm proud of you, Hon," she said. "That took a lot of strength not to just send Jess packing and to let Rory know that he was here."

"Yeah, whatever," Luke said noncommittally, still not sure he'd made the right decision. He walked to the window and glared down at Jess and Rory, wondering what they were talking about. He cringed as he saw the young woman he thought of as his little girl leaning in to kiss his wayward nephew who responded with enthusiasm. "Look at that! He's all over her!"

Lorelai walked to the window to attempt to pry Luke away from it, "Stop spying on them," she said but couldn't help glancing down herself. She looked down at the front yard just in time to see them pulling apart.

"I don't like this," Luke said.

"I know, Babe, but look at that smile on her face. Maybe the two of them will make it work this time."

"Maybe," he said still unconvinced.

"Now, come on! Get away from the window and give them some privacy. Rory would kill you if she knew you were standing there like a peeping tom watching their every move."

"But…"

"Move it, Mister!" She tugged on his arm to pull him away from the window.

"Fine," he said reluctantly as he let himself be led away from the window.

Lorelai slid her arms around his neck and planted a kiss on his lips to distract him. "Have I told you how good you look today?"

"Good, how?" he queried in a low rumble as he wrapped his arms around her.

"So good, that it's a shame this look is going to be wasted on my father and the old bats at the country club. You just promise me you won't let any of those biddies sink their claws into you while I'm not around."

"I don't know. Maybe I can find me a nice sugar-mama to take care of me so I don't have to work anymore," he teased her. "You know, one of those lonely widows just looking for a little something to make the nights a little less lonely."

"You just better be saving that little something for me," she said."Though I'd hardly call it little," she added with a wicked grin.

"How'd I know you'd turn this into something dirty," he said shaking his head in amusement.

"You started it," she teased. "Come on, let's get going. You don't wanna keep your hot date waiting."

"Stop," he said as they walked down the stairs hand in hand, preparing to go their separate ways.

* * *

An hour and a half later at the country club's driving range, Luke groaned in frustration at his utter lack of skill. "Dammit," he growled.

"Relax, Luke," his father-in-law-to-be said. "You're doing fine."

"Fine? Are you kidding? That's the fourth damn tee I've broken since we got here!"

"That's not necessarily a bad thing," Richard said. "If you're breaking the tee that means you're at least making contact with the ball."

"I'm just no good at this."

"You'll get the hang of it, Luke. You just need more practice. That's why I had suggested the driving range rather than trying to play another eighteen holes like we did last time."

"Yeah, that was kind of bad," Luke said as he recalled his last golf outing with his future father-in-law. He'd never guessed at the time that he and Lorelai would be where they are now. He was happy that things were going the way they were. He just wished he could get through to Rory. He sighed in frustration as he set up another tee and took another whack at an unsuspecting golf ball once another growling when it didn't go where he wanted it to. "This is stupid," he grumbled. "I seriously can't do this," he added though he wasn't sure he was still talking about the golf anymore

"I'm sensing there's more to your frustration than just your ability to hit a golf ball," Richard said. He'd noticed a severe shift in Luke's mood since the night before. It reminded him somewhat of the mood he'd been in the previous Sunday evening when he'd been upset about the meeting with his ex-wife, but this seemed a little more serious.

"You think," Luke said sarcastically then upon seeing the stern look on Richard's face added, "Sorry. It's not you."

"You seemed so happy last night during the party and then the movie later. What happened? Did you and Lorelai have an argument?"

"No, Lorelai and I are just fine," he said as he took another violent swing sending yet another golf ball flying in the wrong direction.

"I'm sorry. It's none of my business, really. I was just concerned about what has put you in this absolutely charming mood you're in."

Luke couldn't help but laugh at Richard's turn of phrase. "I'm sorry I'm being so grumpy today. I just have some stuff to deal with that I'm not quite sure how to handle."

"Again, not my business, but I'll be more than happy to listen if you want to get if off your chest."

Luke glanced at Richard and the expectant look on his face and debated whether or not he should share with him the events of the morning in Stars Hollow. He'd worked so hard to gain Richard's trust, to prove to him that he was going to be a good father to the older man's unborn grandchildren and he didn't want to blow it. He didn't say a word. Instead he turned away from him and took a half-hearted swing at another ball barely making contact with it. He shook his head as the golf ball landed only a few feet away and said, "I don't think I'm cut out for this."

"Somehow, I gather that that comment wasn't directed at your golf swing," Richard said. Luke lowered his head staring down at the marred grass and the broken tees at his feet and sighed, not daring to let his future father-in-law see the defeated look on his face. Richard wasn't ready to let it go and asked him, "What is it you feel you're not cut out for? Marriage? If it makes you feel any better, it's perfectly normal this close to the wedding to be nervous and start having second thoughts."

"No, that's not it," He said as he turned toward Richard finally looking Richard in the eye. "I'm not nervous or having second thoughts about the wedding. I told you that last night. The wedding is going to happen. I've wanted this for so long with Lorelai I actually wish the wedding were a little sooner than June third. I can't wait to marry her."

"Then what is it? The children? I know that when I accidentally overheard your conversation with Lorelai at the house a few weeks ago, you confessed that you were a little uncertain about being a father to twins."

"That's only part of what's bugging me," he sighed again still unsure how much he wanted to share with Richard. "Are you sure you want to hear this," he asked trying to give himself an out, knowing that Richard was persistent.

"Only if you feel comfortable with it," Richard replied. "If you don't, fell free to tell me to mind my own damn business, but I get the sense that this is something you need to work out."

"Ok, here goes," he said as he told the whole story from start to finish regarding his confrontation with Rory and Jess and how out of control he felt. "I hate this," he concluded. "I hate not being in control of my kids, and I know Rory's not really mine, but she feels like mine, you know?"

"I think I understand," Richard said quietly. He'd been silently observing Luke's reaction to the budding romance between Rory and Jess and had noticed the furrowed brow and the worried looks that had crossed his face, especially last night at the party when his nephew had re-entered the kitchen with Rory's lipstick smeared across his face. "If it makes you feel any better, I know exactly what you're feeling right now. I have experience with feeling like you have no control over your child. "

"You do?"

"Of course, I do. I think you're forgetting that I found out on my daughter's sixteenth birthday that she was pregnant and dropping out of school. I never felt like more of a failure as a father than I did in that moment. I blamed myself thinking that if I hadn't traveled so much for work, if I'd been home more, spent more time with her, talked to her more, that maybe she wouldn't have turned to Christopher for the male companionship she needed, that if I'd done things differently, my brilliant daughter wouldn't be throwing away her future. It broke my heart to know that she was going to miss out on what she could have had. In spite all her rebellion, she was an excellent student. She was bound for Yale, my alma mater and when I saw all my dreams for her going up in smoke I just lost it. Much like you did with Rory today, I said some very hurtful things to her, making the situation worse."

"Wow," Luke said when Richard had finished. "I guess I never thought about that whole thing from your perspective. I've heard Lorelai's side of it for years, but I guess it never occurred to me how you felt that she got pregnant so young."

"It hasn't been easy. It's taken many years to overcome the hurt from the past, but I think that I have a better relationship with my daughter now than I did then. Her life may not have turned out the way that I had planned for her, but I'm quite proud of all she's accomplished. Given the obstacles thrown at her, she's become quite successful, not in the way that I'd imagined but it makes me proud all the same. I just hope for your sake and for Rory's that it doesn't take you twenty years to repair the damage that's been done today, like it did with Lorelai and myself."

"I'm not gonna let that happen," Luke said.

"I'm sincerely glad to hear that," Richard replied. "What do you say we give up on the practice for the day and retire to the clubhouse for a drink?"

"Isn't it a little early in the day for that?"

"But you're in my world now, Luke. We may protest that it's too early in the day for a drink, but it's all an act. We never turn down a drink no matter what time of day it is."

"You're on, "Luke said with a chuckle as the two men began to pack up their bags. While he'd hesitated at telling Richard what was on his mind, he was glad now that he had. He felt better after hearing about Richard's reaction to Lorelai's teen pregnancy, knowing that while the situation with Rory was bad, it could have been a lot worse.

* * *

"This place is so amazing," April gushed carrying a shopping bag filled with memorabilia to decorate her room with from the campus bookstore as she walked through the Yale campus with her step-sister-to-be. Rory had led her on a tour of her favorite places on campus while Lorelai and Emily had trailed behind them, talking about the upcoming wedding most of the time and letting Rory lead the way.

"It is, "Rory agreed glad that this tour of the campus had been going a lot better than the last ill-fated tour she'd given. "I love it here."

"I can see why. Man, I can't wait to go to college!"

"So, are you ready to hit the mall in Hartford," Lorelai asked. While she was glad that April was enjoying herself, she was somewhat bored with the tour as she'd already been there many times since Rory had started school, plus she'd already had to relive her mother's tale of how her father had proposed to her again. When she'd scoffed, Emily had commented that at least Richard had been the one to propose and not the other way around, getting in another dig at her relationship with Luke.

Emily glared at her daughter, knowing what was on her mind. They'd been getting along up until they'd reached the location where Richard had proposed to her and she had retold the story for April's benefit. Lorelai and Rory had heard the story, but April hadn't and she'd wanted to share a bit of family history with the young girl. When Lorelai had made her comment about it after the girls had moved on to the next location, she'd gone on the defensive as usual. She hadn't meant to take yet another swipe at Luke, but it came out anyway. While she'd enjoyed herself immensely the night before in spite of the food fight, she was still bitter that she wouldn't have gotten to spend that time with them if it hadn't been for April inviting her, nor would she be along on this trip without her. She knew that her daughter would never purposely invite her to spend time with her. She wondered why it was that April could be so accepting of her presence in their lives, but her own daughter couldn't. "Honestly, Lorelai," she said in irritation. "Is shopping all you think about? Can't you see the girls are enjoying themselves?"

"Yes, I can see that," Lorelai replied. "But they could enjoy themselves at the mall too. Plus, it's not like you have any room to talk about shopping. I seem to remember a trip to the mall when you went a little crazy after you had that argument with dad about it." She was stung by the fact that no matter how hard she tried, her mother still couldn't fully accept that her relationship with Luke made her happy, so she felt the need to point out that her own marriage hadn't exactly been perfect either.

"Hey, if you're ready to go to the mall, we can," April said once again feeling the need to be the peacemaker. "I think I've got a pretty good idea about the campus now. I mean, we've been here two hours already."

"No, if you wanna stay longer, we can stay," Lorelai said with an icy glare at her mother that was intended to let her know that she wasn't as selfish as she was trying to make her out to be.

"I'm up for the mall," Rory said sensing her mother's boredom.

"Good," she said. "'Cause guess who managed to wheedle Daddy Luke out of his MasterCard again?"

Rory stiffened a little at the mention of Luke as she was still angry with him because of his unwarranted attack on her this morning over her spending an innocent night with Jess, when he couldn't seem to keep his hands off of her mother and she knew it was anything but innocent. She was glad that he made her mother happy and it didn't bother her that he was sleeping with her. She'd gotten used to that, but she thought he was being a little hypocritical "Gee, I wonder what you had to do to accomplish that," she said acerbically.

Emily couldn't help but notice the hostility in her granddaughter's voice when Luke's name was brought up. She wondered if maybe she wasn't as happy about her mother's upcoming marriage as she'd let on. She glanced at Lorelai, seeing the hurt look on her daughter's face at Rory's cool words and decided to steer the conversation back to the topic at hand. "Why don't we take my car to the mall so we don't have to take two separate vehicles, then we can go to the club from there and I'll drop Rory off later since she's not going back to Stars Hollow?"

"Fine," Rory said turning her back on her mother as the four of them made their way to Emily's car.

None of them spoke on the drive from New Haven to Hartford, but their silence spoke volumes. Rory continued to stew over her argument with Luke, Lorelai over her mother's attack on Luke, Emily over her daughter acting like she was intruding by being there while April was left feeling like somebody ought to say something to ease the tension, but nobody dared. When they entered the mall, Rory immediately took off, muttering something about going to the bookstore, leaving Lorelai staring after her retreating back while Emily glared at Lorelai. April finally spoke up when a jewelry kiosk in the walkway caught her eye. "Look at this," she said as she started perusing the racks trying to anything to distract her companions from their hostility.

"You like jewelry," Emily inquired.

"I just started getting into it recently," April answered. "I don't have a whole lot of it yet, though."

"Well, we'll have to change that while we're here," Emily said. "Why don't you pick out something you like and I'll buy it for you as a birthday present."

"Mom, you already got her a birthday present," Lorelai protested.

"There's no law that says I can't buy her another one," Emily fired back the turned her attention back to April and the jewelry racks. "These are adorable and I think they'd look good on you," she said as she plucked a pair of earrings off one of the racks.

"Only one problem," April said.

"What's that," Emily inquired.

"I don't have pierced ears," she explained as she pulled back her hair to indicate her bare earlobes.

"Well, we can change that," Emily said as she indicated the sign on the glass counter that stated the stand they were at did piercings.

"Really," April squealed excitedly.

"No, Mom," Lorelai interjected while April's face fell. "Absolutely not!"

"Well, why not? Look how excited she is. It's not as if I'm trying to force something on her that she doesn't want."

"Because that is a drastic change, one that I'm not sure that her mother would approve of," Lorelai answered.

"Mom said I could get my ears pierced when I turned thirteen. I'm thirteen now, so why not?"

"Because your father and I promised your mother that we'd return you to her in one piece and I don't think that includes adding new holes in your head."

"Come on, Lorelai, please?" April pleaded with her.

"April, I said no!" Lorelai said a little more harshly than she'd intended. "Not until we clear it with your mother first." She didn't want another confrontation like she and Anna had had over the high heels. She wasn't going to take the chance that she'd do something with April that would make Anna feel once again like she was usurping her motherly rights and risk her changing Luke's visitation with April over it.

"Lorelai, you're being completely unreasonable," Emily snapped.

"I think I'm gonna go join Rory at the bookstore," April said and made a hasty escape.

"I don't understand your attitude, Lorelai. Why won't you let me do this? Why are you so determined not to let me have any part of this child's life? I know you hate me and that you think I was a horrible mother, but am I such an awful grandmother that I can't try to get to know April and do things for her?"

"I never once said you were a horrible mother and I don't hate you! This isn't about you! This is about Anna! She is April's mother and I'm not going to do anything that extreme with April that she doesn't approve of first."

"You're acting as if you have no part in her life yourself. Come June third, you and Luke will be husband and wife, making you that girl's step-mother. Why aren't you embracing it?"

"I am, but I'm not going to start a war with Anna over something that can be avoided!"

"Don't use the girl's mother as an excuse. I know you, Lorelai. This is just you playing cautious again when you should be diving right in," she said coolly. "How does Luke feel about your indifference toward his daughter?"

"As if you give a damn about Luke's feelings and for the record, I am not indifferent to April! I have been nothing but supportive to Luke and friendly to April. I just threw her a birthday party, didn't I? Do you think I would have done that if I were indifferent to her?"

"Then why are you holding back on this?"

"Because I don't want that bitch in Woodbridge taking Luke's kid away from him," she exclaimed.

"That's a little harsh for a woman you claim that you're trying to get along with," Emily said coolly.

"I _am_ trying to get along with her for Luke's sake and for April's, but I can't like her. In fact I hate her. I hate her for never telling Luke he had a daughter. I hate her for treating him like dirt and making him jump through hoops just to spend time with his kid. I hate her for making me feel like I'm the other woman and most of all I hate her because she was the one to give Luke his first child when I'm the one who actually loves him and she didn't give a damn about him enough to even be faithful to him when they were together!" By the time Lorelai had finished her rant, she had tears streaming down her face. She didn't even care that she was in a public place.

Emily looked at her daughter and felt a stabbing pain in her heart at seeing her like that. She hadn't realized how much this situation had hurt her. She didn't say another word, but simply reached out to her and wrapped her arms around her daughter and let her cry. She wasn't sure if it was the right thing to do. She'd never been one of the touchy-feely mothers, but Lorelai didn't resist so she couldn't have objected to it too much. She wished she knew the right words to say to her to ease her pain, but nothing came to mind. While she and Richard had had their share of problems over the years, there was nothing that could compare to this. When Lorelai's sobbing started to subside, she pulled back a little and said, "Is there anything I can do?"

"No, Mom," Lorelai said with a sniffle. "This is just something I have to work out myself."

"Have you told Luke how you really feel about this woman?"

"How can I? Whether I like or not, she _is _the mother of his kid."

"Well, so are you," Emily pointed out. "You're the one carrying his children now. You have to keep that in mind. No matter how much you hate this situation, you do have the advantage over her."

"How's do you figure?"

"He loves you, not her. You're the one who shares your life with him. You're the one he wants to be with. That's not even mentioning the fact that with your children, he'll get to be there from the start. He'll be there when they're born, when they take their first steps, and say their first words. He'll be there when they start school and learn to ride a bike. He'll be there to teach them things that he never got to with April. I mean, April is a lovely, bright young lady, but Luke came into her life too late to really do all the things that a father is supposed to do with his child or to make much of a fatherly impression on her."

"I know all that, Mom, but it still hurts, you know? I have nothing against April at all. I think she's a great kid and I care for her, but it just really bothers me that Anna's the mother of his first-born. I know it's probably stupid to feel that way when I have a kid with someone else too, but I can't help how I feel."

"Well, you're entitled to your feelings, Lorelai, and I don't blame you for feeling that way, but you have to figure out how to deal with this and move on. Your future marriage depends on it,"

"That's easy for you to say. You're not the one dealing with it," Lorelai said bitterly.

"I'm well aware of that. I can't imagine how I'd feel if I were in your position, but I don't think I'd be able to handle as graciously as you have. You've done an amazing job of embracing April and making her feel welcome in your home, in spite of your feelings. I wish I had some words of wisdom to help you get through this, but I just don't. I can't tell you how to deal with your feelings about Anna. I've never been in the position of finding out that the man you love has a child with someone else."

Lorelai laughed a little and said, "I can't imagine Dad having a kid with someone else."

"It _is _possible, Lorelai. Your father was no saint when I met him. He was a fraternity boy, after all," Emily said with a smirk.

"Ok, ewww," Lorelai said and giggled again.

"Come on, why don't we go find the girls and try to salvage what's left of this shopping trip," Emily suggested as she reached for her daughter's hand and gave it a gentle squeeze to reassure her.

"Sounds like a plan," Lorelai replied as she and her mother walked hand in hand to the bookstore.


	44. Chapter 44

I'm so so sorry it took so long to get this update completed. I've been super busy with work and with other writing projects. Thank you, thank you, thank you for your patience. I will try very hard not to go this long between updates again.

Lanie

* * *

"This is getting a little freaky, Mom," Lorelai said as she continued to tell stories of her father's days as a young fraternity boy.

"Well, it _was _the sixties, after all," Emily was saying to her daughter with a smirk as they walked to the bookstore where Rory and April were browsing.

"Ok, Mom, stop," Lorelai protested. "You're grossing me out! I so don't want to hear about you and Dad back in your younger days."

"Who said those things were confined to just our younger days. After all, your father did say that he _was _rather pleased with my appearance after the makeover party last night," Emily teased.

"Eww, Mom. No more. I'm begging you,"

"So, you're allowed to make jokes about your private life and I'm not. Is that it?"Emily teased.

"No," Lorelai said with a grimace. "It's creepy."

Rory was surprised by seeing her mother and grandmother walking into the bookstore hand in hand after the tension between them on campus. That was an unusual sight to behold as the two of them had never been that close. "Well, don't you two look all chummy," she commented with a slight smile.

Emily abruptly pulled her hand from her daughter's and said, "We just had a bit of a talk and got a few things out in the open, that's all," she replied awkwardly.

"So, you finding anything good?" Lorelai asked her daughter in an effort to change the subject since her mother was doing the same thing she always did. She thought they'd been having a good time even though the innuendo about her parents' sex life had freaked her out a little. She should have known it wouldn't last. Her mother had a habit of temporarily dropping her guard enough to let her daughter in, but then when it was commented on, she'd immediately get her defenses back up as if it didn't matter. She still didn't know how to take her mother's hot and cold attitude toward her. She'd been deeply grateful for the fact that her mother had been there to comfort her during and after her breakdown regarding Anna, but now Emily was acting like it had never happened. She thought back to all the times when she was a little girl and upset about something and all she wanted was for her mother to take her in her arms and tell her it was going to be ok. Sadly, Emily had never been that kind of mother, the kind that she herself had tried to be to Rory. She'd made sure when Rory was growing up that she always knew that she was loved and that Mommy would always be there to comfort her. Lorelai had never felt that kind of security with her own mother. She glanced at her mother and wondered if they were even capable of having that kind of closeness.

"A few things," Rory said.

"Just let me know what you want and I'll get out the MasterCard I swiped from Luke."

"I'll pay for my stuff myself, thanks," Rory replied coolly.

"Hon, come on," Lorelai said hating that Rory was so mad at Luke.

"I mean it, Mom," Rory said and turned her back on her mother to make her way toward the cash register.

"What was that about?"Emily inquired.

"Nothing, Mom," Lorelai answered not wanting to get into the details of Rory's fight with Luke. More than anything, she didn't want her mother to find one more fault in her relationship with Luke or give her ammunition to start running him down again now that she'd finally seemed to accept them as a couple.

"That didn't seem like nothing," Emily argued once again stung by her daughter's unwillingness to share details of her life with her own mother. "Are you and Luke fighting?"

"No, Mom, Luke and I are not fighting. Luke and I are absolutely perfect, thank you," she said icily. "Why would you just automatically assume that there's something wrong between me and Luke just because Rory's acting like a brat?"

"I merely asked a question, Lorelai. I know how protective you and Rory are of each other and it's rather obvious that Rory's mad at Luke about something. I just thought it might be because she was taking your side in an argument."

"Rory is not taking my side in an argument because there is no argument to take sides in and that's because Luke and I are not fighting. Luke and Rory are fighting but it's not about me!"

"Well, you can hardly blame me for wondering, especially in light of your outburst the other night about your wedding being postponed."

"The wedding's not postponed anymore and when it _was_ postponed it wasn't because Luke and I were fighting, it was because Luke needed a little time to deal with suddenly finding out that he was a dad. We're back on track and doing just fine!"

"If you're doing just fine, then why are you getting so defensive?"

"Because you always do this!"Lorelai cried. "Every single time something is going right in my life, you look for the bad in it, or you make me feel bad about doing something that makes me happy! This is why it's so hard for me to share stuff with you! Why can't you ever just be my mom and support me no matter what? Why do you always have to be my judge?"

"I'm not, Lorelai. I'm simply trying to find out more about your life since you're obviously incapable of willingly including me in your life. And don't give me that I always judge you nonsense! I haven't said word one about the fact that you're pregnant and unmarried, or the fact that you and Luke are living together before marriage, nor have I said anything about the fact that Luke has a child that he never knew about! In fact, I've done just the opposite. I've tried very hard to embrace April and make her feel welcome in our home and as a part of our family. I've also tried very hard not to interfere in the wedding plans you're making. I've accepted the responsibilities you've given me in your planning and haven't pushed for more. You should know how hard that is for me to do when I've dreamed your whole life of one day helping you to plan for your wedding day! I even helped Luke to move in with you because I thought it would make you happy! Just what the hell is it that you want from me?"

"I don't know, Mom. All I know is that every time that I feel like we're really starting to make some progress toward mending our relationship, something else happens that sets us back and I hate it!"

"Do you honestly think that you're the only one who feels that way? I hate it just as much as you do. I hate feeling like a stranger in my own daughter's life. I want so much to be included, but you keep shutting me out!"

"I'm not shutting you out! I just feel like if I share certain parts of my life with you, you're going to be nothing but judgmental if things aren't going the way you expect them to. What is it _you _want from me?"

"I want you to stop acting like you're afraid to talk to me. I know that I haven't always been the most supportive mother that I could have been, but I'm trying! I'm trying so hard to be the kind of mother you need. Can't you at least give me credit for that?"

"I'll try," Lorelai said with a soft sigh. "You're right, you have been trying to be more supportive lately and I appreciate it. I guess I should have said it before, but it's hard for me to believe that it's going to last."

"I can't guarantee that it will, but I'm willing to try if you are."

"Ok," Lorelai said.

"So, what's really going on with Rory's attitude?"

"I can't tell you that," she said.

"Why? After you just said you were willing to try, you still refuse to share things about your life with me!"

"Because this isn't about my life, Mom! It's about Rory's!"

"Rory's life is your life," Emily countered.

"No, Mom, it's not. Not anymore. Yes, Rory's still a part of my life, but she's an adult now and her personal life is her business! If she wants to share it with you that is entirely up to her, but it's not my place to tell you!"

"This is about Luke's nephew, isn't it? That's why she'd fighting with Luke, isn't it?"

"Why would you say that?" Lorelai said evasively.

"Please, Lorelai. I'm not a complete fool! I saw how close the two of them were last night during the movie and I distinctly remember Luke's comment after she broke up with Logan about not wanting to see her with his nephew again since he's broken her heart in the past. That's what they're fighting about, isn't it?"

"Yes, ok, yes! But please don't say anything to Rory about it. Let her tell you if she wants to."

"All right, if that's what you want."

"It is. Thank you."

"You're welcome," Emily said with a firm nod. "Not let's go see what the girls are up to."

* * *

While waiting for the girls to finish their shopping trip, Richard and Luke were sitting in the clubhouse across from one another at a table large enough for six having a drink together and talking about their experiences with fatherhood.

"I don't know what to think," Luke was saying. "Every time I think that I'm getting a handle on this whole fatherhood thing, something new happens that I'm totally unprepared for and completely blind-sides me."

"That's perfectly normal, Luke," Richard replied. "None of us ever really knows what to do with our children. It's not as if they come with and instruction manual," he added with a chuckle.

"That's the truth," Luke said as he took a sip of his scotch. He didn't really care for it, but as Richard had said after their previous outing 'when in Rome…' He was struck by the fact that Richard had said the same thing about kids that Lorelai had when she was trying to ease his insecurities about fatherhood after they'd agreed to get married in the town square. _It's not like kids come with an instruction manual. _Maybe Lorelai didn't look at things quite as differently as her parents did.

"Look at me. My daughter's been out of the house for more than twenty years, yet she still manages to surprise me. I never imagined in a million years that she'd ever decide to settle down with a man like you."

"What does that mean, a man like me?" Luke asked a little defensively.

"Relax, Luke. I didn't mean it as an insult to you. I meant it more as a compliment to Lorelai and to you. I'm sure as long as you've known her, you've noticed the boyfriends that have come and gone."

"Well, yeah," Luke replied. Boy, had he ever. Every time that Lorelai started dating someone new, he'd always known, whether she'd told him about it or not. He remembered wondering why she dated all the loser guys who always let her down when she'd failed to see that the guy who loved her most had been standing right in front of her for years.

"Not the most stable fellows," Richard commented.

"Yeah," Luke said with a little chuckle that he'd just been thinking the same thing. He was beginning to see that while he and his future father-in-law had many differences, they also had some things in common.

"But you're different that they are. You're much more grounded in reality. You look to the future while the others were firmly rooted in the here and now. I see it very clearly in the way that you're struggling with trying to make the best decisions for your burgeoning family. Especially in the way that you waffled about the house and whether or not you were going to let us buy it for you as a wedding present."

"I'm still not entirely sure how I feel about that. If I made the right decision, I mean," he said awkwardly. "I was dead-set against it at first. I don't want to be the guy who gets in the habit of relying on his wife's family money. I initially only agreed to look at the house because it meant so much to Lorelai and I knew that we'd need a bigger place for when the twins are born. It was hard enough making room for April in the house we're in now. When we got there and I saw that house and I saw how Lorelai saw that house, I just knew that was the place for us. Then when I saw how Rory and April fell in love with it too, I could just picture all of us there. How could I say no to that?"

"I'm extremely grateful that you didn't say no," Richard said. "It means the world to Emily to be able to finally do something for Lorelai. That Lorelai is letting her in a little. Their relationship has suffered so much over the years and to see them how they are now makes me happy."

"I know. I've seen first-hand how much their squabbling has hurt Lorelai for years, but I don't want this to be something that Emily will be able to use against me later. She's never been a member of my fan club."

"Don't think of it that way, Luke. Just think of it as the gift it was intended to be. The fact that you accepted it doesn't necessarily mean that you're relying on us for anything. I have no doubt that you're perfectly capable of providing for your family without our assistance. The purchase of this house was never intended to suggest otherwise. When Emily brought up the idea to me, the first thing that she said about it was that she was thinking it would help relieve some of the burden from you with all the drastic changes happening in your lives."

"I don't see our family as a burden. Yes, it's hard, but we're working through it."

"That's not what I meant. I just meant that this whole situation has got to be a little overwhelming. Lorelai's pregnancy, the wedding, the house, dealing with your ex-girlfriend over visitation with your daughter, Christopher's reappearance. It's a lot to handle all at once. Emily saw all of that. As cool as she may be toward you, she has started to see what I've seen for a while. That you make Lorelai happy and that's all she's ever wanted for her."

"Hmm," Luke said thoughtfully as he pondered Richard's words.

"You got quiet all of a sudden," Richard said wondering what was on his future son-in-law's mind.

Before Luke could say anything a cool voice behind said, "Richard, how are you? It's been a long time."

"Hello, Francine," Richard said in a tone of voice that conveyed more friendliness toward Rory's other grandmother than he actually felt. "What brings you here today?"

"Meeting my son for lunch," she replied. "Who's your friend?"She asked while she looked Luke up and down.

"Oh, haven't you met?"

"I don't think so," she said.

"This is my future son-in-law," Richard replied proudly. "Luke Danes, Francine Hayden," he said gesturing to Luke.

"_This _is Lorelai's fiancé?"She questioned with a surprised look on her face. He wasn't as scruffy looking as she'd remembered the last time he'd been at the club with Richard.

"That's me," Luke said uncomfortable under her close scrutiny. "Hayden, huh? So, that means your son is…"

"Mom, there you are," Christopher's voice rang out as he approached the table with his younger daughter in tow.

"…Christopher," Luke finished.

"Luke," Christopher said icily.

"So, this must be your other daughter," Luke said just as coolly.

"Yeah, this is Gigi," he said. "So, um…what are you up to?"

"We just hit the driving range," Richard replied to intervene after seeing the way the two men were glaring at one another. "You?"

"Just meeting my mother for lunch, right, Mom?"He said to his mother.

"Yes, I was just telling them that I was waiting for you."

"The drive from Boston to Hartford's an awful long one just for lunch," Luke commented.

"I didn't drive from Boston. I don't live there anymore. Rory didn't tell you that I moved back to Hartford?"

"No, she didn't," Luke replied somewhat alarmed having no doubt about the reason for Christopher's sudden move.

"Well, it's nice to know that there are at least a few things that my daughter doesn't share with you," Chris crowed.

"Actually, she doesn't talk about you much at all when she's home with me and Lorelai," Luke countered.

"So, where are you living in Hartford?"Richard asked hoping to avoid another argument between the two younger men.

"He's living with me," Francine said.

"Imagine that," Luke muttered under his breath at the thought of mama's boy Chris once again moving in with his mother.

"He's been quite a help to me, actually, and it's nice to be included in my granddaughter's life," she said with a scathing look directed at Luke as if her were personally responsible for the fact that she barely knew her older granddaughter. "Speaking of which, where _is _Rory today? I tried to call her at her apartment to invite her to have lunch with us, but she wasn't home."

"She wouldn't have been," Luke said. "She'd been coming home to Stars Hollow every weekend lately," Luke said. "Right now, she's out shopping with Lorelai, Emily and April."

"April is _your _daughter, I'm assuming," she inquired. She was well aware of the fact from what she'd heard from her son that the man in front of her had never known that he'd had a daughter until recently.

"Yeah," Luke said wondering just what she was implying with her haughty tone. "She's thirteen. Smart as a whip, just like Rory. She just competed in this big math contest and did very well," he said proudly. "I spent two weeks up in Philly with her watching her compete," he added with a pointed look at Christopher reminding him of his lack of involvement in Rory's life.

"He was definitely a proud daddy when he came home," Lorelai's voice rang out from behind Francine.

"Hey, where'd you come from?"Luke asked.

"You should probably ask my parents for the answer to that question, but be sure to do it when I'm not around. I've already heard _way _more information than I need to in that area," Lorelai said with a grin aimed at her mother who'd entered the room right after her daughter followed closely by her Rory and April.

"Smartass," Luke groused.

"Just one of the many charms of me," Lorelai said with a smile as she greeted Luke with a kiss before taking a seat next to her fiancé while Francine looked on horrified.

"How was the shopping trip?" He asked. "Please, tell me that you showed some restraint."

"Me, in relation to shopping?"She questioned. "Are you serious?"

"Stupid me," he said.

"I didn't buy anything you won't approve of. I did need to get some looser fitting clothing, since your kids keep making my waistline expand here."

"That's a good thing," he said as he lightly stroked her slightly rounded abdomen.

"I'm glad _you _see it that way," she pouted.

"So does your doctor," he reminded her.

"Hey, Dad." April said as she greeted her father with a kiss to the cheek before seating herself on his other side directly across from the seat Emily had just occupied next to her husband.

"Hey, Kid," he said. "Did you have a good time?"

"Oh my God, Yale is so amazing! I can't wait to go there when I'm old enough. Rory showed me the coolest stuff on campus. Did you know that the dorm she used to live in has what was called by Robert Frost the most beautiful courtyards in the world?"

"Yeah, I knew that. Rory told me that when she lived there," he replied. "But it's still cool," he added at seeing the crestfallen look on his young daughter's face at not being the first to tell him that.

"Yeah," she said a sigh. She wanted so much to be close to her dad, but she was finding out that the more she tried, the more she realized that it was going to be hard to find anything to share with her father that he hadn't already shared with Rory.

"You know what though, Yale's a big school," Luke said. "I'm sure once you get there you'll find all kinds of things to tell me about it that Rory's never seen. I mean, Rory's an English major and you're interested in science, so I'm sure you'll be able to tell all about the cool research facilities they've got there. And you'll tell me all about whatever crazy experiments you're doing and I will look forward to hearing every word," he said to boost her confidence. "I mean, you have no interest in science, right, Rory?" he said to her.

"Right," Rory said stiffly before turning to her father. "So, Dad, I didn't know you were going to be here," she said brightly. "And you brought Gigi," she gushed. "That's so cool. I don't get to spend nearly enough time with my sister."

"Yeah, we came to meet your grandmother for lunch," Christopher replied.

"You're more than welcome to join us if you'd like, Rory," Francine said. "That is, if you don't already have other plans," she added with a frosty glare at Luke.

"No, I don't already have plans," Rory said with an icy glare at Luke.

"Rory, come on," Luke said.

Rory ignored him and said, "I'd love to have lunch with you."

"Shall we go find our own table than?"Francine said scathingly with a sneer at Luke.

"I'm in," Rory replied cheerily. "Lead the way."

Rory followed as Francine led her to another part of the dining room and Christopher began to follow while shooting a smug smile in Luke's direction. Luke began to rise from his seat before Lorelai laid a calming hand on his shoulder and whispered, "Let it go, Babe." Luke sighed and resumed his seat glaring at Christopher's retreating back.

"I thought Rory was having lunch with us," Emily said offended that Rory had taken off with the grandmother who'd barely even acknowledged her existence until recently. "Did we do something to upset her?"

"It's not about us, Emily," Richard said with a knowing glance at Luke.

"Well, I guess I'm the only one not included in whatever the hell's going on with my granddaughter," Emily said hotly.

"You're not the only one out of the loop," April said. "I don't know what's been going on either. All I know is that both Dad and Rory have been in a totally pissy mood today."

"Would you cool it with the language, already?"Luke grumbled.

"Fine, but you should at least admit that you've been in a completely foul mood all day."

"Fine, whatever," Luke said.

"So, what's good to eat here? I haven't been here forever" Lorelai said to change the subject. "I'm completely starved!"

"That's nothing new," Luke quipped inciting laughter from the rest of the table.

Rory, upon hearing the laughter, turned and glared at her family from across the room. Her stares were not lost on Luke who gestured with his head to empty chair next to Richard that she should have been occupying. She looked at him for a moment before stubbornly turning back around and acting as if she was fascinated by what her three year old half-sister was babbling about. Luke sighed again wondering how to get Rory to forgive him for his unwarranted outburst of temper. He didn't know how yet, but he had to find a way to make it up to her. Their new family life depended on it.


	45. Chapter 45

Woo-Hoo! Two updates in two days! Yay me! I'm getting back into the swing of things, I hope. This would have been posted a little sooner, but the motel we were staying at had pretty crappy WiFi and I kept losing my connection to it. I'm home now and back to my more reliable internet. The weekend away did do me some good though. I was able to do some much-needed relaxing, and of course catching up on my writing. I hope you all enjoy this newest chapter. Thanks once again for being patient and for continuing to read and review.

:)

Lanie

* * *

That evening after Anna had come to pick up April to take her home to Woodbridge, and Luke had started dinner, he and Lorelai collapsed onto the couch both emotionally exhausted. "God, what a day," Lorelai said as she snuggled into her fiancé's arms seeking comfort.

"You can say that again," Luke agreed.

"God, what a day," Lorelai said with a giggle.

"I should've known better," Luke said with a groan as he slipped his arms around Lorelai and pulled her closer.

"So, how was your day?"

"Let's see, besides the fight with Rory and the drama at the country club, I made a total ass of myself in front of your dad at the driving range."

"Well, you expected that, Hon. You've said yourself, golf's not your game."

"This was worse than usual," He said. "I was so focused on all this crap with Rory and Jess that I totally couldn't concentrate on the stupid golf balls."

"Do you really care? I mean, it's not like you've been secretly harboring some great desire to be the next Tiger Woods, unless there's something I don't know about you."

"No," he said chuckling a little. "I just hate that I made a fool of myself in front of your dad."

"You know something, I don't think he minded. Besides, he pretty much made a fool of himself in front of you the day the two of you spent at the batting cages."

"I guess that's true," he said with a laugh as he recalled Richard struggling to hit a baseball the same way he struggled with hitting a golf ball. "I just hate it that Rory's pissed at me and Christopher showing up just made the whole thing worse."

"You handled it well," She said with a smile, proud of his restraint.

"I might not have if you hadn't been there," He said as he stroked her hair comforted by the fact she was always there to help him keep his cool. He sighed again as he reflected on Christopher's revelation that he was now living only a thirty-minute drive away. He couldn't help but wonder if Lorelai had known this, but was afraid to ask, not wanting them to have another screaming match about her tentative friendship with her ex. He had to know though, so he momentarily set aside his fear and asked, "Did you know that he's living in Hartford with his mother now?"

"No, I haven't talked to Chris since I let him have it for embarrassing Rory at Lane's wedding. Don't you remember me refusing to talk to him when he called here Wednesday night all apologetic?" she asked.

"I remember," he said. He also remembered that Christopher hadn't taken it too well either. He acted as though Luke, himself were purposely keeping Lorelai from talking to him until Lorelai, hearing bits of his side of the conversation, had shouted into the phone, _I don't want to talk to you, _before walking away and leaving him to deal with Christopher's pathetic attempts at an apology.

"Did you think I wouldn't have told you if I knew something like that?"

"I don't know. I just thought maybe Rory might have told you and you didn't tell me. I guess I wouldn't blame you if you kept something like that from me considering how I reacted the last time Christopher started calling you."

"That's in the past and I'm so over that. Besides we agreed no more secrets. I would definitely have told you something like that."

"I wonder why Rory didn't tell you about it herself," Luke mused. He was wondering more about Rory and her behavior at the club than he felt brave enough to ask. When she'd left the club, she'd pulled her mother aside for a moment and he'd been unable to hear what they were talking about, but he could tell from the looks on both of their faces that it wasn't a pleasant conversation. When she'd returned to the table, Lorelai had been quieter than usual. Emily, in her typical fashion, wouldn't allow her daughter to stay quiet, especially when she saw Rory leave with her other grandmother. He could tell that his mother-in-law-to-be was just as upset by Rory leaving with the Hoydens as he was. He had a feeling that she was only using her father's unexpected appearance at the club to hurt him the way he'd hurt her this morning, but she failed to realize that she'd hurt her grandmother in the process.

"Probably because she's trying really hard to keep her life with her dad separate from her life with us," Lorelai suggested. "She doesn't want to take the chance that her dad's going to try to stir up any more trouble between the two of us."

"We won't let him even if he does try," Luke said firmly as he planted a kiss on the top of Lorelai's head.

"You got that right," she said. "So, anything else happen today I should know about?"

"Not really. I mean, obviously your dad could tell that I was on edge and he kind of talked me down off the ledge a little."

"You and my dad are getting pretty friendly lately."

"Weird, huh?"

"Totally," she replied. "But good, I guess. He could want to kick your ass for getting me pregnant like he did with Christopher."

"This is a totally different situation, though. You're not sixteen anymore," he pointed out.

"Thank God for that," she said. "I wouldn't want to be sixteen again for anything in the world."

"No?"

"Nuh-uh, I've got a much better life now than I did then," She said as she slid her arms around his neck and pulled him down for a kiss.

"Glad you think so," he said as he pulled back from their kiss. "So, tell me about your day."

"Well, everything was fine when we were at Yale, but when we got to the mall, all hell broke loose. Rory was being a total brat and there was a brief moment when I had to be the bad guy with April, and I had another tiff with my mom. Which do you want to hear about first?"

"What do you mean you had to be the bad guy with April? What happened?"

"So, I guess we're starting with April," She said slightly amused that that was what Luke was focused on when that had been the least stressful part of her day. "It wasn't a huge deal, I just had to tell her no on something she wanted and she got a little upset, which got my mother upset," she began and told him the whole story of the ear-piercing incident, though leaving out the part about her meltdown. She still couldn't bring herself to tell him how she really felt about Anna's presence in their lives. She felt bad about not being completely honest with him, but she was sure that he held back his true feelings in regards to Christopher for her benefit. Plus, she also didn't want him thinking that her negative feelings toward Anna were any reflection on April. She'd meant what she told her mother. April was a great kid and she planned to do everything in her power to make her feel like she was a welcome part of their family. She just wished that didn't mean that she had to put up with her bitchy mother.

Lorelai had tried to see things from Anna's point of view because she'd been through a similar situation when Chris had started to get serious about Sherry. The more she thought about it though, the more she realized that the situation was entirely different. She'd never kept Rory from Chris and she never would have thought about not telling him that he had a daughter, nor would she have made him jump through rings of fire just to spend time with her. Chris has just chosen not to take an interest until the difficult part of raising their child was over and Luke was just the opposite. He genuinely wanted to be a part of April's life and felt horribly guilty that he'd missed out on her early years even though it wasn't his fault. He wanted to be included in the day to day decisions regarding her upbringing, but Anna was holding all the cards and made sure that Luke knew it. While she appreciated that Anna had allowed April to spend a weekend with them and it had meant the world to Luke to get to spend that much time all at once with his daughter, she couldn't help but wonder how long it would last.

"Wow," Luke said when she'd finished rambling about the mall trip. "It sounds like your day was just as crazy as mine."

"So, do you think we've set the record for the Guinness book yet?" she teased.

"Probably," he said with a chuckle. "I should get up and check on dinner," he said.

"Not yet," she said snuggling into him.

"The food could burn," he said.

"But isn't this nice, just sitting here together?"

"Yeah, it is," he said and leaned down to kiss her lips.

"That's nice too," she said with a smile as she looked up at him before kissing him again this time pulling herself up a little bit so she could make better contact. He responded by wrapping both arms around her waist and hauling her into his lap so that she was straddling him. When they broke apart both breathless from the intensity of their kisses, she said in a throaty whisper, "How about we have dessert first, then dinner."

"Let the food burn," he said in a low husky voice and returned to kissing her while his hands slid under the fabric of her wrap dress. Lorelai sighed in contentment at Luke's touch "I like this dress," he said as he reached for the string belt that held it together and untied it deftly and drank in her beauty.

"Yeah?"

"Easier access," he murmured low against her throat as he lowered his head to kiss her newly exposed flesh.

"I guess there's something good about my weight gain after all," she said as she reveled in the feel of his lips on her skin. She latched onto him and was just running her fingers through his thick hair when they were interrupted by the sound of the doorbell, "Crap!"

"Ignore it and maybe they'll go away," Luke whispered not stopping what he was doing.

Lorelai pushed on him slightly and said, "We can't ignore it. It might be important." She pulled herself off of him and tugged at her dress.

Luke growled in frustration at the loss of contact, "Fine, but we _are _picking this up later," he said with a longing gaze at her still exposed body.

"Count on it," she said planting a quick kiss to his lips as she finished tying up her dress and made her way to the front door while Luke got up and headed for the kitchen to check on his dinner.

Lorelai was surprised to see her parents standing on the other side of her front door, "What are you guys doing here?"She questioned as she let her parents inside and closed the door behind them.

"Are we too early?"Emily queried as she took in her daughter's slightly disheveled appearance with an arched eyebrow.

"Too early for what?"Lorelai asked in confusion.

"For the dinner you invited us to," Emily stated. "We must be, I could have sworn you said seven O'clock but I must have been mistaken as it looks as if you're not at all prepared to have dinner guests. Perhaps I heard you wrong. Clearly we're interrupting something here," Emily commented with a knowing smile as she eyed her daughter's mussed hair, rumpled dress, and swollen lips that were missing a fair amount of the lipstick she'd been wearing earlier. She imagined if she'd see Luke, she'd find him in much the same state and probably wearing Lorelai's missing lipstick.

"No interrupting. Though, Luke was trying hard to distract me from the fact that you guys were coming to dinner," She said with a grin. _Crap!, _she thought. She'd completely forgotten that they'd invited her parents to join them for dinner again after the success of their previous Sunday dinner at the Crap Shack.

"Hey!" Luke called from the kitchen. "Don't do that! Don't put this all on me," he added in irritation.

"You forgot, didn't you?"Emily said the hurt evident in her voice as she'd already been stung by Rory's actions earlier in the day.

"No, of course we didn't forget. We're just…um….a little behind schedule with as hectic as our day has been."

"If you're not prepared to have us for dinner, I suppose we could return to Hartford," Emily said giving her daughter an out if she wanted it. "It's not as if we don't have other places we could go."

"No, Mom, stay. Seriously. We…um…we just got distracted, that's all. You're still welcome to stay for dinner. In fact, I was just about to ask you what you wanted to drink. We don't have the wide variety of choices that you do at your house, though," she said as she urged her parents to follow her into the living room.

"Whatever you have will be fine, Lorelai," her mother said as she entered the living room on her daughter's heels. "I must say I'm quite surprised that you and Luke allowed yourselves to get 'distracted' as you called it with his daughter in the house. I would've thought you'd learned something from the experience you had with Rory last weekend."

Richard who'd been silent since they'd entered their daughter's home was once again saddened by the somewhat hostile interaction between mother and daughter. He said, "I think I'll just go see if Luke needs any assistance in the kitchen," before making a hasty escape, not wanting to get in the middle of yet another potential argument between his wife and his daughter.

"We _did _learn something from the experience. We've remembered to lock the bedroom door every night since then. The reason that we weren't worried about it now is because neither April or Rory is here."

"April's not here either?" She'd known that Rory wouldn't be in Stars Hollow for dinner as she'd said earlier in the day that she had a lot of work to do at Yale, but she thought she'd get to spend some more time with at least one of her granddaughters. It was strange to her that she already thought of April as a granddaughter even though she was no relation to her, but it didn't feel as awkward as she'd thought it would when she'd first learned of Luke's surprise daughter. She had fully embraced her role in the girl's life, mostly because Lorelai had. She decided upon meeting the bubbly, intelligent girl that if Lorelai could so openly accept her, why shouldn't she? She couldn't hide her disappointment in the knowledge that April wouldn't be joining them for dinner. She'd hoped to get to know her a little better.

"No, Mom, she's not. Her mother came to pick her up almost an hour ago," Lorelai explained as she handed her mother a freshly-made martini.

"And you just allowed her to whisk her off before she'd had dinner without saying anything about it?"

"Yes, Mom, I did. Mainly because it wasn't up to me. Anna is her mother, not me. She wanted April to have dinner with her, so what on earth could I say to her?"

"I'm just surprised by this, especially in light of our conversation earlier."

"Mom, shhh," Lorelai said as she hustled her mother out to the front porch, not wanting Luke to overhear their conversation.

"Lorelai, what on earth are you doing?"Emily said at being forced outside.

"I don't want to have this conversation where Luke can hear it," she said. "I thought I made that clear earlier."

"You still haven't discussed this with him?"

"No, I haven't and I don't intend to. This is _my _issue, not his. We're trying so hard to get our life together and I'm not going to let my feelings about Anna get in the way of that," she said steadfastly.

"I simply don't understand this, Lorelai. This is something the two of you should be discussing with one another. And while we're on the subject, I don't understand her actions either. What was the point of her allowing April to spend the weekend with the two of you if she just drags her off before the weekend is completely over? And why aren't you standing up for yourself with this woman? It's not like you at all to not say exactly what's on your mind."

"I know it's not, Mom, but you don't understand. This is a tricky situation. Luke wants so much to be a real part of April's life and Anna's her mother. She's the one who has legal custody of her, so she's the one who makes all the rules. Luke's name isn't even on her birth certificate."

"Well, maybe that should change," Emily said hotly, surprised and more than a little annoyed by her daughter's cavalier attitude about the whole situation.

"The custody thing or the birth certificate thing?"

"Both," Emily said steadfastly. "It's been well-established that Luke is this girl's father so why shouldn't he have a bigger role in her life? Your father and I know some excellent family attorneys. I'd be happy to provide you with some names or make some contacts for you."

"No, Mom. I appreciate the thought, but it's not necessary," Lorelai said though she wondered if that were really true. Luke himself had mentioned the idea of asking for her parents' help after he'd had that fight with Anna over the trip to Philly and her spending more time with them.

"How can you say that? That woman has already deprived him of twelve years of his daughter's life. And you heard April at the first dinner she attended at our house, how her mother never wanted to tell her anything about her father when she desperately wanted to know him. For twelve years, that girl only knew half of where she came from because of her. Why should she be allowed to do any more damage?"

"Because Luke doesn't want to drag April through a big court battle. It would only hurt her more. He's trying to work things out with Anna without resorting to extreme measures like that."

"I understand his desire to not want to hurt his daughter, but the man has rights! Rights that this woman has kept him from for more than a decade! I think it's long past time that he started fighting for his rights! Especially now that you're having more children together!"

"What has that got to do with anything?"

"Don't you get it, Lorelai? The children that you're carrying now are going to be the bridge that connects your family together. Rory and April will both be big sisters to your unborn children. The two of them will be step-sisters when you get married and while they'll never be related by blood, the fact that they're going to share a connection to the twins will be something that will bond them together forever, but that's never going to happen if you and Luke keep allowing the child's mother to limit your contact with her."

"I guess I never thought of it like that," Lorelai said as her mother's words sunk in.

"Maybe it's time you really think about it," Emily replied curtly.

"Look, it doesn't matter what _I_ think. This custody situation is between Luke and Anna. _They're _her parents. If Luke is unhappy with his arrangement with Anna, then he needs to be the one to do something about it. It has nothing to do with me!"

"It has _everything _to do with you. You're going to be his wife, Lorelai."

"I know that, Mother, but I can't push Luke into doing something that he doesn't want to do."

"Of course, you can. Part of a wife's job is to make sure that she looks after her husband and does what's best for him, even if he doesn't always see what the best thing for him is."

"Let it go, Mom. Luke is going to handle this his own way and I'm going to let him. He's not the kind of man who can be goaded into doing something that he's not ready to do."

"You're being completely impossible!" Emily said as she slammed her martini glass down sloshing its contents onto the much-mended porch rail. "This situation is making you deeply unhappy, yet you're unwilling to do anything about it!"

"I'm _not_ deeply unhappy! This thing with Anna is bugging me, yes, but other than that, I'm very happy with my life with Luke. Just please let it go, Mom," Lorelai pleaded not wanting to pursue this conversation any further.

"Fine, if you're too stubborn to do what it takes to work this situation out, I guess there's nothing more to be said about it," Emily said as she picked up her glass and walked back through her daughter's front door saddened by Lorelai's stubborn refusal to do what it would take to ensure her future happiness. She just wished there were something more that she could do to help.

Lorelai sighed as she followed her mother into the house suddenly regretting her forthright outburst at the mall when she'd let all her feelings about Anna out in the open. As she walked into the house, she smiled a little as she smelled the familiar aroma of Luke's cooking. She stepped into the kitchen where Luke and her father were chatting and joking amiably about Luke's disastrous performance at the driving range.

"I don't think there's any hope for me on the golf course, Richard," Luke said with a grin.

"I don't think that's true, Luke," Richard said encouragingly. "Anyone's who swings a baseball bat with the power that you do should be able to master swinging a golf club. All you need is a bit more practice."

"I guess," Luke said with a shrug.

"What smells so good in here?"Emily inquired as she stepped into the room.

"Chicken parmesan," Luke replied.

"Well, it smells absolutely divine," Emily said. She glanced at her husband who was helping out by chopping vegetables for a salad. "What _are _you doing, Richard?"

"Just helping out," he replied as he continued his task.

"Luke put you to work, huh?"Lorelai teased.

"Not at all, Lorelai," her father answered. "I _asked _if there was anything that I could do to help just as I said I was going to when we arrived here."

"Whatever," Lorelai said skeptically as she walked past her father to the refrigerator to retrieve her apple juice and poured herself a glass while Emily took a seat at the table glaring at her daughter's back.

At seeing the obvious tension between mother and daughter, Richard attempted to steer the conversation back to the earlier topic saying to Luke, "I imagine that you'll be concentrating your energies on practicing for that baseball game next weekend, won't you?"

"What baseball game?"Emily queried once again feeling out of the loop.

"When we were at the batting cages, we ran into my friend, Ed. He asked me to pitch in the annual Stars Hollow-Woodbridge game," Luke explained.

"It's a pretty big deal," Lorelai said. "There's always been fierce competition between Stars Hollow and Woodbridge.

"Something that April reminded me of last night," he said with a chuckle. "She kept telling me to be prepared to lose because Woodbridge has put together the best team they've had in years."

"We were here last night and I don't recall any mention of a baseball game," Emily said with a frosty glare at her daughter who'd just sat across from her at the kitchen table.

"This was after you guys left," Luke replied.

"I see," Emily said sadly at the knowledge that Richard knew about this big game, but she didn't. It was a small thing, but it made her feel as if this were just one more facet of her life that Lorelai was keeping her out of. "I didn't know that you still played baseball, Luke," she said pleasantly, trying to shake off her plaguing thoughts.

"Every once in a while when the home team needs me," he said. "But with all the other stuff I've got going on, I can't really be a full-time member of the team."

"It's too bad, too. I really enjoy seeing you in those tight baseball pants," Lorelai said with a mischievous grin earning her a withering glare from both her mother and her fiancé.

"Would you behave?"Luke groused.

"So, are you going to this game, Lorelai?"

"I wouldn't miss it," Lorelai said. The truth was she didn't have the slightest interest in baseball, but she knew that Anna would be there since she lived in Woodbridge and she wanted to see Stars Hollow win just for the sheer satisfaction it would bring of beating Anna at something.

"_You're _going to the game?"Luke questioned with a bemused smile at Lorelai.

"Sure, why not? I wouldn't miss the opportunity to see my hot man in that hot uniform."

"Jeez," Luke said as he shook his head and returned to his cooking.

"Well, that will be nice," Emily said.

"What are you talking about, Mom," Lorelai asked. "You hate baseball."

"So do you," Luke pointed out.

"I was just thinking that it will be nice that you and April will be able to watch the game together," Emily said to her daughter.

"April and I won't be watching the game together," Lorelai said. "I mean, she'll be there, but she'll be with her mother. Plus, she's already made it clear she'll be rooting for Woodbridge, so we won't even be sitting on the same side of the field."

"So, Luke, does that mean this weekend visit was just a one-time thing?"Emily asked. If she couldn't get Lorelai to deal with this situation, maybe she could appeal to Luke.

"No, it wasn't just a one-time thing, Emily," Luke replied. "She'll just be spending next weekend with her mother."

"I see," Emily replied with a frown. "So, when will she be here again?"

"Um, I'm not really sure," Luke answered awkwardly wondering what had prompted the interrogation from Emily. "Anna said she wanted to get April's account of how _this _weekend went before we make any definite plans for another weekend visit."

"And you just accept that?"Emily questioned.

"Yes," Luke replied much to Emily's chagrin. "I'm just happy to get to spend whatever time with her I can. Besides, she'll be here during the week to visit, too."

"Mom…"Lorelai said with a warning tone in her voice when it looked like her mother was about to say something else.

Emily ignored her daughter and plunged on, "So, she won't be joining us for dinner next Friday?"

"Mom," Lorelai said again in a harsher tone.

"Well, I need to know if I'm going to plan a dinner, don't I?" Emily said impatiently.

"No, April won't be there," Luke answered as he glanced from Lorelai to Emily and back again wondering if the tension between them was still regarding the ear-piercing incident or if there was more going on that he didn't know about.

"That's a shame," Emily said. "I've rather enjoyed having her there."

"Don't plan on me being there either. It'll just be Lorelai and Rory," he said and was saddened a little as he thought again of Rory's behavior at the country club.

"What? Why?"Emily said wondering what on earth was going on. She looked at Lorelai for an answer.

"He has to close the diner that night, Mom," Lorelai explained.

"Doesn't he have people who could do that for him?"

"Not always," Luke said. "It's Caesar's night off and Lane will still be on her honeymoon, so that leaves me."

"Well, this is just ridiculous," Emily said in irritation. "What's the point of having these weekly family dinners if the whole family can't be there?"

"Emily, we've always known that there would be nights that Luke wouldn't be at dinner due to the nature of his business," Richard said breaking his long-standing silence. "And you can hardly expect April's mother to be willing to give up every weekend with her child."

"Why shouldn't she? She's had the child all to herself for twelve years without once ever bothering to consider her father in all of this. She should be more than willing to allow them the time together that they need to make up for all that lost time."

"Look, Emily," Luke said starting to get riled. "Anna and I are working this out the best way that we can. It's an awkward situation for all of us, but we're dealing with it! I appreciate your concern, but we've got in under control!"

"Do you _really _think it's all under control?"Emily questioned as she vividly recalled her daughter's tears earlier in the day. She glanced at Lorelai who was shooting her a pleading look not to say anything more. Upon seeing her pained expression, she did an abrupt about-face. "I guess you would know," she said in a softer tone not wanting to cause her daughter any more pain. Lorelai smiled in gratitude, but Emily wasn't willing to just let it go. She knew that there had to be a way to resolve this and she was determined to find it.


	46. Chapter 46

AN: This chapter is a little shorter than I usually post, but I wanted to leave it where it is for right now as the next part is going to be very long and I felt it needed to be split into two chapters rather than one huge one. I hope to have the next part done and posted by this weekend. Thanks for all the reviews!

:)

Lanie

* * *

The tension in the Crap Shack's kitchen was thick enough to cut with a knife as the elder Gilmores continued their dinner with their daughter and future son-in-law. Luke was silently stewing over Emily's outburst regarding his visitation with his daughter. He reflected back on his conversation with Richard at the country club and was again wondering if he'd made a mistake in allowing the Gilmores to purchase their new home. It seemed that since he'd agreed to it, Emily felt that gave her license to meddle in other parts of their lives. He had mentioned to Lorelai that if things escalated between him and Anna, that he may have needed their help, but he chalked that up to temporary insanity and was grateful that it hadn't come to that. He couldn't imagine how much delight Emily would have taken in him admitting that he needed their assistance. He was glad now that he hadn't. He was fine with the way things were going with April. They'd started to really grow closer as a father and daughter should and he was happy with the time he got to spend with his daughter.

Lorelai was silent through most of dinner, something highly unusual for her, not wanting to get her mother started again on the topic she knew Emily was dying to discuss, but she herself had no desire to stir up again while in Luke's presence. She knew it was wrong to keep her feelings about Anna from her future husband, but she didn't want to cause him any more stress in an already stressful situation. He'd already been through enough today with his fight with Rory and Jess and having to deal with Christopher at the club. She concentrated on her plate and the delicious meal he'd prepared and tried to push her feelings aside so they could have a relatively peaceful dinner. She looked at Luke for just a brief moment, who gave her a half-hearted smile before returning his gaze to his plate, causing her to do the same.

Emily kept glancing at Luke and his furrowed brow wondering what was going through his head. She couldn't understand at all how he could be satisfied with the little tidbits of time his horrible ex-girlfriend allotted him with his child. She had never imagined that a man such a Luke would ever have allowed another person to control any facet of his life. She'd seen first-hand how he was about standing up for himself and for the people he loved and it was unfathomable to her that he wasn't willing to stand up for himself in this situation. She then sneaked a peek at her daughter while she ate and wondered once again why she was adamantly refusing to tell Luke how she really felt about the whole situation. She couldn't help but wonder if it had anything to do with the reason that the wedding had been postponed in the first place. She sighed at her daughter's stubbornness and unwillingness to be honest with her future husband. She glanced back at Luke who was staring at his plate and stabbing violently at his pasta with his fork as if it were responsible for the tension in the room before looking back at her daughter who was doing the same thing. Clearly, there were things the two of them weren't talking about. She wondered what they were afraid of.

Richard studied his wife intently, who in her pondering of Luke and Lorelai's situation, had failed to notice his scrutiny. He knew what was going on in her head. After his numerous conversations with Luke, he understood that Luke was just trying to keep the peace between himself and the mother of his child in order to put less stress on his relationship with April, as well as to keep Lorelai from any unnecessary stress that could put a burden on her pregnancy. He had to wonder though, if that was the best way to handle things now that he saw that Lorelai was clearly upset about something that she wasn't saying. He tore his gaze from his wife and looked at Luke who was wearing an expression very much like the one he'd had at the driving range when he'd been stewing over his fight with Rory. He then looked over at his daughter who was unnaturally quiet. It struck him that Emily had been the same way on the drive to Stars Hollow. She'd been this eerily silent too. He couldn't help but notice the tension between the two when they'd entered their daughter's home tonight. He wondered if something had happened during their shopping trip that had caused it and was burning with curiosity regarding the reason that the two of them had stepped outside to talk earlier rather than staying in the house. He wondered if it were some private mother-daughter thing that they didn't want to share with him or if there were more to it. Was the private conversation they'd had something they didn't want him to hear or was it Luke that they didn't want overhearing? While his thoughts were plaguing him, he decided that someone had to break the painfully uncomfortable silence that had overtaken the room. He might as well be the one to do it. "I must say, Luke, this meal is quite enjoyable," He said trying to start a semi-pleasant conversation.

"Thanks," Luke muttered half-heartedly not really feeling up to talking.

"Was this another one of your mother's recipes?"Richard probed determined not to let the room fall into silence again.

"Um…Yeah," Luke replied.

"She must have been quite the good cook," Richard said as he recalled Luke telling him that she'd been the one to teach him to cook when he was a young boy.

"Yeah, she was," Luke said again mumbling half-heartedly.

"Something her very talented son inherited from her," Lorelai said with a warm smile at her man.

"Yes," Emily agreed trying to push aside her negative thoughts of how his treatment of his custody situation was hurting Lorelai, hesitant to upset her daughter further. "I can see why your restaurant has stayed in business as long as it has."

"I guess," Luke said. Luke was still not comfortable with Emily's intense scrutiny of him. He felt on edge. He knew that there was more she wanted to say, but was holding back. He worriedly wondered what that was about. It was unlike Emily not to just blurt out whatever thought ran through her mind, no matter how inappropriate or hurtful it might be. His thoughts were interrupted Paul Anka jumping into his lap begging for people food. "Dammit, you stupid mutt, get down!" he growled as he pushed the shaggy dog onto the floor before turning to Lorelai and saying, "You see what happens when you let him get in the habit of sitting in the kitchen chairs?"

"Luke, come on," Lorelai said. "He just wants to share this amazing meal with us."

"Well, it's bad enough that I've have to chase him out of our bed every night since I got home and now this!"

"Hey, I let him sleep in our bed with me because _you_ weren't here to sleep next to me," Lorelai said bitterly. "I was lonely without you!"

"Well, why didn't you call Christopher? I'm sure he wouldn't have minded giving you a warm body to sleep next to," Luke said angrily as he rose from his seat.

"Just what the hell is that supposed to mean?"Lorelai shouted back as she also rose from her seat. Emily and Richard shared worried looks across the table, neither sure what to do in this situation.

"You know exactly what it means! Do you think it's coincidence that barely a week has gone by since he made that crude speech at Lane's wedding and he's suddenly quit his job in Boston and moved back to Hartford! Do you really think he did that just to be close to his mommy? I don't! I think he's sitting there like a cat just waiting to pounce if something gets screwed up between you and me!"

"The only way things are going to get screwed up between you and me is if we let it! I thought we both decided that we weren't going to let that happen, and I think it's completely unfair of you to hold me responsible for what Christopher does! I told you that I found out he moved back here the same time you did! I didn't know anything about it until today! You saw how I refused to talk to him when he called here the other day, but you're so blinded by jealousy _again_ that you can't see that! I have done everything I can to show you that you're the only one I want! I've cut Christopher out of my life, I've made room for you here, and I've accepted your daughter with no question and even made room for her in my house! What more do you want from me?"

"_Your _house? That's funny; I thought it was _our _house! Is that how it's going to be when we get moved into the new place? Is it gonna be just your house too, since your parents bought it?"

"No, that's not what I meant! I just meant that it's been just Rory and me in this house for so long. You don't know what a huge step toward real commitment it was for me to let you move in with me or how hard it was to get used to the idea of sharing my space with someone else!"

"Do you think it's been a cakewalk for me? I've lived alone my entire adult life! I'm not used to sharing my space either, but that's what you do when you start making plans to build a life together!"

"I know that, Luke! That's why I'm trying so hard, but you can't see that when Christopher comes around! You can't even seem to realize that I don't _want _him coming around! All he's ever done since you and I got together is try to tear us apart and I hate it! Don't you get that? I hate it as much as you do, but he's Rory's father and I can't stop him from spending time with her or her from wanting to spend time with him! Why don't you just admit that that's what this is really about? You're not mad because you think Chris is after me again! You're pissed because Rory took off with him today instead of spending the rest of the day with us like she was supposed to!"

"Damn right, I'm pissed! What the hell was she thinking about? And let's get this straight, she didn't do it because of some burning desire to spend more time with her father. She did it out of spite because she's mad at me!"

"Don't you think I know that? I know my kid, Luke. That's why she and I had words when she left the club today! I told her what she was doing wasn't right! I also reminded her that she wasn't just hurting you, but was also hurting Me, April and her grandparents with her selfish behavior! And while we're on the subject, let's talk about your behavior that started all of this to begin with! If you hadn't made a scene in the diner this morning, screaming at her and Jess, and embarrassing her in front of half the town, none of this would have happened! "

"So, when I wake up and she's not in her bed, I'm supposed to just let it go? I'm not allowed to worry about her or her safety? Do you have any idea how panicked I was or the thoughts that went through my head when she wasn't here where she was supposed to be?"

"Of course, you're allowed to worry about her, but you're not her father, Luke," Lorelai said and upon seeing the pained look on his face she added, "I didn't mean that the way it came out. I just meant that it's not your responsibility to look out for her. I think it's great that you love her that much, but she's a grown-up and you need to start treating her like one."

"Well, she needs to start acting like one," Luke said in a calmer tone. "Her behavior at the club today was totally out of line, like she's a spoiled little kid having a tantrum," he added as he flung himself back down in his chair.

"I agree," Lorelai said sadly. "Look, Hon, I know you're upset about this fight you and Rory had. I wish I could make it go away, but this is something you two are gonna have to work out yourselves," she said as she sat back down opposite him.

"Yeah, I know. Got any ideas for how I can fix this?"

"You might start with apologizing to your nephew," She suggested.

"How's that gonna help?"

"It's just a first step. They're talking a lot now and if they go forward with this relationship, they'll be talking a lot more. Jess is sure to tell Rory about it if you apologize to him first. That might soften her up a little."

"Maybe," he said thoughtfully as he returned his attention to his dinner. He cast a wary glance at his future in-laws and said sheepishly, "Sorry about the yelling. I'm just a little tense."

"You don't say," Richard quipped trying to lighten the mood a little.

"I'm just an idiot," he grumbled as he thought of how he'd spent the whole day doing nothing but upsetting the people he loved the most.

"Well, we all have those moments," Richard said. "Especially concerning matters of the heart."

"Very true," Emily agreed. "I seem to recall a certain idiot purposely rear-ending my car in a fit of jealousy."

"I did no such thing," Richard said innocently. "I told you, I simply misjudged the distance."

"Who hasn't done that?" Luke said with a chuckle as he recalled the very candid talk he'd had with Richard when he admitted that he'd done it on purpose.

Dinner proceeded without another incident as all four people relaxed a little and joked amiably with one another. When the dinner was finished and Luke began helping Lorelai to clear the table, Emily surprised everyone by saying to Luke, "Let me do that."

"What?"He said.

"Well, you cooked. You shouldn't have to clean up as well. I'll help Lorelai with the clean-up."

"Ok, who are you and what have you done with my mother?" Lorelai asked with a mirthful grin.

"You invited us to dinner, the least I can do is help out a little," she answered before turning to her husband and Luke saying, "Why don't the two of you take your drinks out onto the front porch and do your after-dinner male-bonding thing that you're so fond of."

"The front porch?"Luke questioned wondering what she was up to and if there was some particular reason she was trying to get him and Richard out of the house.

"Why not? It's a nice night, and it's not like you have your Fortress of Solitude like Richard does with his study."

"Uh, Mom?"Lorelai said. "Are you aware that you just made a _Superman _reference? Again, I have to say who are you and what have you done with my mother?"

"Honestly, Lorelai, you act as though I've lived in a cave my whole life," she said impatiently before turning back to the men and saying, "Now, you two go on! Relax a little."

"I think we're being kicked out," Richard said jokingly, but he had a feeling that Emily wanted to continue whatever mysterious conversation she'd had with Lorelai on the front porch earlier. "Shall we go and leave the ladies to their clean-up?"

"Ok," Luke said still staring at Emily warily as he made his way outside behind his father-in-law.

When Emily heard the front door close and was sure the men were out of earshot, she immediately turned to her daughter and said, "We need to have a talk."


	47. Chapter 47

When Emily heard the front door close and was sure the men were out of earshot, she immediately turned to her daughter and said, "We need to have a talk."

Lorelai glared at her mother for a brief moment before turning her back on her a reaching for the plates that remained on the table. "I don't want to talk," she replied as she carried the dinner dishes to the sink and began to make dishwater.

"I know you don't, but you've got to," Emily replied as she gathered up the remaining dishes and followed her daughter to the sink. "What you're doing right now is going to destroy your relationship if you don't start talking."

Lorelai turned to her mother and snapped in irritation, "You don't know what you're talking about. My relationship with Luke is just fine. You just want to find trouble where there is none." Lorelai was once again wondering why her mother couldn't just be happy for her when her life was going so well. She turned back to the sink and began piling the dirty dishes in the sink.

"IF there's no trouble, then what on earth was that absolutely delightful show the two of you put on at dinner?"

"So, we had a fight! Big deal! It's not the first time and it won't be the last. Besides you don't know everything that's been going on! We've both had a very stressful day and we took it out on each other when we shouldn't have. That's it!" Seeing that the sink was full, Lorelai turned the water off and began the process of washing the dishes.

"That's _not _it," Emily replied. "That tension that was between you tonight is going to remain there until you work this out."

"It _is _worked out. Luke admitted that he's jealous of Christopher and that he needs to apologize to Jess and Rory. What else do you expect of him?"

"Do you honestly think that I'm talking about Luke?"Emily asked as she reached for a dish towel and began drying the dishes that Lorelai had washed.

"Aren't you? Let's face it, Mom. No matter how supportive you've been pretending to be lately, you still hate Luke and hate that he's the one I want to be with, so you look for the worst in him just so you can prove that you're right!"

"I don't hate Luke. In fact, I feel sorry for him, because I'm beginning to wonder if you care for him as much as you say you do."

"What? I've told you repeatedly how much I love Luke and that I want to spend the rest of my life with him. We're starting a family together and that's what I want, a real family life!"

"If that family life is really what you want then why are you trying so damned hard to sabotage it, when you're this close to getting it?"

"I'm not trying to sabotage anything!"

"What else would you call it? You're supposed to be marrying Luke in less than a month, yet you're lying to him!"

"I'm not lying to him!"

"Not telling him the whole truth is lying to him, Lorelai," Emily pointed out. "You know, I always thought in the past, that the reason your relationships fell apart was because you inevitably picked the wrong men. Now, however, I'm starting to think that you're the problem. I can't believe that I really thought that you were ready for a real adult, committed relationship. You're still doing the same old thing that you've always done. When you're close to getting the life you want, you get so afraid that it won't work out, that you make sure it doesn't!"

"You think that I don't want things to work out with Luke? I want that more than anything! I realized recently that all these years when I've been dating the wrong guys and looking back on yet another failed relationship that it wasn't because there was something wrong with me or with the guys themselves. What was wrong is that they weren't Luke! I see now that it's always been Luke that I needed, Luke that I turned to when I was upset and needed someone to talk to, Luke who was always there for me, and for Rory. It was Luke that I really loved all this time! Don't you get that?"

"Yes, I get that, Lorelai. I'm the one who's been telling you for years that there were feelings there between you and Luke, but you were too stubborn to admit that I was right! Now that you see it too you're hell-bent on destroying it! Are you that afraid of being settled down! Would you prefer to just be miserable?"

"No, of course I wouldn't rather be miserable!"

"Well, that's the way you're heading. You're going to lose him if you don't start being honest with him."

"How can you say that? Luke would never leave me, especially now that I'm pregnant. He wouldn't abandon me or our unborn children! What kind of a man do you think he is?"

"Why must you always assume that I have a problem with Luke? It's not Luke that's the problem here. I know that he would never neglect his responsibility to you or to your children, but that doesn't mean you still can't lose him. Did you ever stop to think about where his angry words from tonight came from? It seems to me that he's insecure about how devoted you really are to him and, chances are, he senses that there's something you're holding back from him. When you're in a serious relationship with someone, you start to just know when there's something not right with your partner. His outburst tonight was out of line, but that's probably where it's coming from. Since you're not being forthcoming with him about how you really feel, he's left to just assume that it's something other than what it is. Seeing Christopher at the club today and the way that Rory ran off with him instead of keeping the plans she made with her real family only increased his fears."

"As I told him tonight and as I've told Christopher several times, I'm with Luke all the way. He's the one I want to be with."

"IF that's true then you need to tell him how you feel about this whole situation. Why aren't you doing that?"

"Because I don't want things to be like they were when the wedding was postponed," Lorelai shouted. "God, you don't know how hard that was for me! I asked him to marry me and he said yes, but then we postponed the wedding so he could deal with this April thing and it hurt like hell! I felt him pulling away from me more and more to go spend time with his kid while I was on the outside looking in. That's something that he should have been sharing with me, but he cut me out of all of it. You don't know how much that hurt!"

"Did you ever once stop to consider how much it hurt him too? Have you even tried to look at it from his perspective? I imagine it must have been a huge blow to him to find out that he had a child out there all this time that he never knew about and that the child's mother purposely kept him from knowing about her existence. Did you ever think about how devastating that must have been for him, especially in light of the fact that the two of you were working on making this house bigger and were planning on having children of your own? He must have felt like a failure for never being there for his daughter when he should have been."

"It's not his fault! He didn't know," Lorelai shouted at her mother. She was now deeply regretting her ill-fated attempt to let her mother in now that she was only using it as a weapon to once again attack the man she loved.

"I know it's not his fault, Lorelai. I'm not running Luke down, nor am I blaming him for not being there for April. I'm saying that maybe the reason he didn't share it with you is because he didn't want you to see him being a failure as a father when he wanted you to be the mother of his future children."

"I know all this, Mom. He told me that the night you guys were here inspecting the remodeling. He was afraid that I wouldn't want to have kids with him anymore if I saw him being a rotten father to April."

"But did you ever think about how that made him feel or about how this current situation with Rory is making him feel? He's feeling like a failure as a father all over again."

"He is _not _a failure as a father," Lorelai said getting defensive again.

"I know that and you know that, but he doesn't. With Rory mad at him, that's just brining out his own insecurities about fatherhood. If you combine that with the fact that he was a guardian to his nephew and Jess is also mad at him, that's only making it worse. On top of that, he's still trying to figure out how to be a father to a teenage girl, a girl he barely gets to see. It seems to me that he's worrying that he won't be able to be a good father to your unborn children and you not sharing these feelings you have about Anna and the lack of stable visitation arrangements is only making it worse."

"You're wrong, Mom. Not about him being insecure about being a dad. You're right about that, but telling him how I feel is what's going to make things worse. It'll just make him distance himself from me again."

"I notice that you didn't distance yourself from him when he let you know point-blank how he feels about Christopher tonight! I think you're being horribly unfair to Luke by not giving him a chance."

"Well, he was horribly unfair to me to keep me separate from his life with April for so long," Lorelai said bitterly.

"So, what? Is this your way of paying him back for that? Not even an hour ago, you were judging Rory for using Christopher to get back at Luke and now you're doing something very similar. I'm beginning to think that I was wrong in trying to make sure that your wedding goes off without a hitch. Clearly, you're not ready for marriage."

"How can you say that? Luke and I have been engaged for a year! It's long past time that we get married!"

"How long you've been engaged doesn't matter if you're not really communicating with the man you're about to marry. Honest communication is a big part of what makes a successful marriage," Emily said. "Now, where do these go?"Emily asked indicating the stack of dessert plates she'd just finished drying. Lorelai burst out laughing at the absurdity of the two of them having an argument while doing dishes. She'd never imagined her mother doing something as mundane as drying dishes. She looked at her mother with the dishtowel slung across her shoulder and laughed even harder. "What's so funny?"

"This," she said with a gesture from her mother to herself. "Us, leave it to you and me to have an argument while we're cleaning up. We can't even have a normal conversation when we're doing something normal."

Emily laughed too as she removed the towel from her shoulder and said, "It is a little ridiculous, isn't it?"

"Above the stove," Lorelai said.

"Excuse me?"Emily said in bewilderment.

"The dessert plates go in the cabinet above the stove," Lorelai said.

"Oh, right. I did ask, didn't I?"She said as she picked up the plates and moved to put them in their place while Lorelai drained the water out of the sink and began to wipe down the counter surrounding it.

When Lorelai finished her task, she turned back to her mother and asked timidly, "Do you really think I'm not ready for marriage?"

Emily sighed, turned back to face her daughter and answered, "I honestly don't know, Lorelai. Only you can answer that question for sure. I do know that you keeping something this big from Luke is only going to make things harder for both of you. The longer you wait to tell him, the worse it's going to be. Who knows? Maybe telling him will get him out of this mode in he's in of tiptoeing around Anna and letting her control every aspect of their daughter's life."

"I'm scared, Mom. I'm so scared. Things are going so well for us right now and I'm terrified that telling him all of this is going to ruin that. I just…I just want to be happy."

"Then tell him," Emily said firmly. "You have to be happy with yourself too, and you won't be if you continue to keep all of this bottled up inside."

"You're right," Lorelai mumbled looking down at her shoes.

"I'm sorry. What was that?"Emily said with a grin.

"You're right," Lorelai said still not looking at her mother.

"I must be going deaf. I still didn't catch what you said," Emily said thoroughly enjoying herself.

Lorelai finally looked up at her mother and said once more, "You're right, ok? There, are you happy? I said it. Do you want it in writing?"

"That wouldn't be a bad idea," Emily said with a laugh. "Chances are I'll never again hear you admit that I was right about something."

Lorelai couldn't help but laugh too and said, "Well, don't get used to it. If you ever tell anyone it happened, I'll deny it."

"I have no doubt that's true," Emily said as the two woman laughed together.

Richard and Luke stepped out onto the front porch neither really sure what the hell was going on or why they'd been ousted from the house. Richard took a seat on the bench that sat on the porch while Luke leaned against the rail he'd spent many hours repairing. They sat in an awkward silence for a moment before Luke said, "It is kind of nice out here," not really sure what to say to his future father-in-law after he'd just made an ass of himself at dinner by flying off the handle.

"Quite," Richard agreed as he took a sip of his drink.

There was another awkward silence before Luke spoke again saying, "Look, about what happened in there, I…Uh…I don't normally lose my temper like that. I…just…uh….I don't know….seeing Christopher today just kind of…"

"I think I understand, Luke," Richard said.

Luke smiled at him gratefully, glad that he wasn't going to make him go into details. "Thanks."

"You're welcome," he said.

"I don't know what it is about Christopher that gets me so crazed. I know that Lorelai loves me, but every time I see him, all these old feelings of jealousy come out and I hate it!"

"I imagine that must be very difficult to deal with, especially since Lorelai and Christopher have known each other since childhood and they have a child together. Of course, Rory's bad behaviors today didn't make things any better."

"I'm sorry about that. It's my fault. I treated her badly and she treated you badly because of it. It's just when she wasn't in her bed this morning, I got so worried, then when I saw her half-dressed in my old bed, the bed that I knew Jess had been sleeping in, I went from being worried to being mad in like two seconds. She's just had her heart broken by Logan and now she's diving in head-first with Jess, another guy who broke her heart and it made want to kill them both."

"So, where do you think this relationship between them is going?"

"I don't know," he said with a sigh. "She said that they decided to take things slowly, but who knows with them. I guess we'll see. I know that if I'm going to have any chance of fixing things with her, I've got to keep my big yap shut about my opinion on the whole thing."

"I don't think that's necessarily true, Luke," Richard said. "I think you should feel free to express your opinion, but you have to realize that the decision is ultimately up to them. They are both adults, after all."

"Yeah, I know," Luke said sadly. There was another moment of silence between the two men until they heard shouting coming from the house. "That doesn't sound good," Luke said as he moved from his position against the porch rail ready to jump in if Lorelai needed him.

Richard rose from his seat and placed a calming hand on Luke's shoulder saying, "No, Luke, leave it alone."

"But…"

"No," Richard said more firmly nudging Luke back to his perch on the porch rail.

Luke looked at Richard's steely gaze and conceded resuming his earlier stance. "What do you think they're fighting about?"

"I don't know. I can't really make out what they're saying, but whatever it is, it's something that they need to work out themselves," Richard said as he sat back down facing his future son-in-law.

"I just don't want Lorelai being upset anymore," Luke said worriedly.

"Nor do I and I don't want to see Emily upset again, but they have to work out their issues themselves. If we get involved, it could only make things worse."

"I thought they were getting along better lately," Luke said.

"They have been, but their relationship has always been a complicated one. You've only been around for the last few years of it, but I've acted as a buffer between them for many years. One thing I've learned in that time is that my stepping in, while it may calm the waters for a time, only makes way for a larger storm in the long run."

"I guess," Luke said though he was still unsure. He didn't want Lorelai getting so upset that she would run the risk of complicating her pregnancy.

"So, when do you see April again?"Richard asked in an effort to get Luke's mind off of the bickering Gilmore girls in the kitchen.

"She'll be here Tuesday after school and again on Thursday," Luke replied.

"So, you'll only get to see her two days this week?"Richard inquired with a frown wondering if Emily had been right earlier in her comments about his visitation arrangements with his ex-girlfriend.

"Well, I'm not going to have time for her to visit tomorrow since Lorelai and I have to go to this stupid pre-marriage counseling thing with the minister who's performing our ceremony and April has swim practice on Wednesday, so that cuts that out and Anna has her for the weekend. She'll be here for the town meeting though, when Taylor's going to bring up the zoning issues so that'll be a good thing, since it affects her too," Luke explained.

"I see," Richard said worriedly. "And you're all right with this arrangement?"

"I don't have a choice in the matter," Luke said. "That's just the way things worked out this week. With not being a part of her life for so long, I'm just happy with whatever time I get with her."

"It seems as if you're letting her mother control everything," Richard said in concern wondering why Luke was taking such a passive role in his daughter's life after so many years of not knowing her.

"No, it's not like that. Anna and I are working it out together. Besides, I'll see her at the game on Saturday too."

"I suppose," Richard said skeptically. Another silence encompassed the two men that was broken a few minutes later by the sound of Lorelai's laughter coming from the kitchen followed closely by Emily's. "I guess the women we love have begun to work out their issues," Richard said.

"Sounds like it," Luke said. "Do you think that means they're done banning us from the house?"

"Let's find out," Richard said as he rose from his seat and walked to the front door, Luke following close behind. They stepped toward the doorway of the kitchen to find the two women laughing uncontrollably. Luke and Richard exchanged glances and moved deeper into the room each approaching their respective partners. "What on earth has got the two of you laughing so hard?"

Emily and Lorelai exchanged looks across the room and Emily replied, "Just a little girl talk. Nothing to concern you." She smiled at her daughter as she watched her lean against Luke's shoulder and saw him instinctively lay his arm across hers. She hoped that her daughter having admitted that she was right would now do the right thing and tell Luke the truth.


	48. Chapter 48

AN: Well, here's the latest installment. Sorry it took so long to get posted. I've had a very crazy-making work week and am still trying to recover from the overwhelming urge to go completely postal on my boss. This is a somewhat shorter chapter than I would normally write, but I feel this is where it needs to end as I have a plan for the next two chapters which, barring more real-life drama should be done soon. Thanks for all of the amazing reviews and for continuing to be patient with me. Now that my winter bowling leagues are done, I should be able to update more regularly. On a positive note, my honey and I won the league championship in our Monday night league. Woo-Hoo! Enough of my rambling. Hope you enjoy this update.

Lanie

* * *

As Lorelai stood on her front porch watching her father pull the Jaguar out of her driveway, she sighed as she thought of the very scary talk she knew she needed to have with Luke. She waved to her parents and her father waved back, but her mother only gave her a stern look and mouthed the words "tell him." Lorelai was about to turn to make her way back inside when she felt a pair of strong arms encircling her from behind.

"I thought they'd never leave," Luke whispered in her ear causing shivers to run up her spine as he pulled her close brushing her hair aside to nuzzle her neck, anxious to finish what they'd begun before dinner. "I'm sorry," he murmured against her neck as she reached her hand behind his head to hold him there. He wanted so much to tell her what he was really feeling and the thoughts that he'd shared with her father. He'd told Richard the truth. He knew that Lorelai loved him, but he couldn't help feeling that no matter what, Christopher's presence in their lives would be never-ending. He knew without a doubt that if something happened that would cause them to split up, Christopher would waste no time it swooping in to attempt to take his place in Lorelai's life. He was determined not to let that happen. He pulled Lorelai close to him and held on with everything he had, needing to show her that he loved her and how sorry he was for his dinner-time rant.

Lorelai didn't say a word for a long time. She simply sighed as she felt his lips brushing against the tender flesh of her neck. She knew that her mother had been right and that she needed to share with him her feelings about the custody situation with April. Not sharing her feelings had been what had gotten them in trouble before. She'd never told him how she felt about postponing their wedding or how much it had hurt her that he'd shut her out of his life with his daughter until they'd had a big screaming match about it. She didn't want this situation to come to that. Her mother's words about telling him the truth kept ringing through her ears, but as Luke continued his ministrations, all thoughts of saying something that might ruin this moment were banished to the back of her mind. Deep down she was afraid that saying what she was really feeling would create another rift between them when they'd just really begun to repair the one that had already been there. She knew that he didn't like to be pushed but she couldn't help but wonder if her mother had been right in her thinking that it was a wife's job to know what was best for her husband even when he didn't know what was best for himself. Granted, she wasn't his wife yet, but she would be in less than a month. That is, if she didn't do something else to screw it up. Things were going so well between them right now and they were closer than they ever had been. She was afraid to take the chance that her big mouth would drive him away. She turned in his arms and kissed him. "Let's go inside," she said finally. No other words were needed as she took him by the hand and the two of them walked together to their bedroom, sharing passionate kisses and shedding their clothing along the way.

* * *

At the Gilmore mansion, Emily sat in silence in her normal evening spot as she tried to concentrate on the book she had so far been unsuccessful at reading due to her constant worrying about her daughter's future happiness. She fidgeted in her seat trying to find a more comfortable position, but she knew it wasn't the chair that was making her uncomfortable. She chewed on her lower lip as she tried to force her mind to concentrate on her book.

Emily's restlessness had not gone unnoticed. "Something on your mind?" her husband asked as he looked up from his own book.

"Not really," she said with a sigh not wanting to betray her daughter's confidence.

"Emily," Richard said in an exasperated tone knowing that there was something bothering her.

"I just can't stop thinking about Lorelai. I'm concerned about her and her future with Luke," she said.

"You mean, because of the argument they had tonight?"

"No, it's not that. Or not _just _that."

"Then what's bothering you? Other than the little spat they had tonight, they seem quite happy together and it seems that their wedding plans are well on their way. We've wanted to see Lorelai happy for many years, so, what's the problem?"

"Are you really that oblivious, Richard? Lorelai is far from happy right now."

"You could've fooled me. I've seen the way her eyes light up just by Luke walking into a room. It's apparent that she loves him very much."

"Of course she loves him, that's not in question," Emily snapped in frustration at her husband's cluelessness. "What is in question is her happiness with the situation they're in."

"As I see the 'situation,' the two of them are getting married in less than a month; they're expecting two children, something that they've both said they're ecstatic about They're also making plans to move into a larger house, a beautiful house that we both agreed was perfect for them to make room for their burgeoning family, not to mention the fact that they seem to be succeeding at blending two families into one. Why wouldn't she be happy about all of that?" He looked at his wife expectantly wondering if the concerns that she had were the same ones he did about Luke's current custody arrangement with the mother of his first-born. He had a feeling that he knew the answer from her comments to Luke at dinner about the issue. He'd also seen that there had been some sort of unspoken communication going on between mother and daughter. He knew without a doubt that that was why Emily had stopped her interrogation of Luke about his visitation with April. It was unlike her to quell her mouth when she had something that she wanted to say. He was deeply curious about what had happened on her outing with the girls that had put her in the mood she was in, but was hesitant to ask her about it. He knew that is she wanted to talk about it, she would.

"I'm surprised at you, Richard. With your keen observation skills, how can you fail to notice what's really going on? Do you honestly think that they're successfully blending two families when they barely get to spend any time with April? And what about us?"

"What do you mean 'what about us?'"

"We were just getting to know the girl and now the opportunity has been yanked away from us! That child is going to be a part of our family very soon, but we're not going to be able to see her."

"I hardly think that we'll never be able to see her again," Richard said trying to pacify his wife, but he couldn't deny that he had the same concerns that she did about the circumstances they found themselves in.

"Who are you kidding, Richard? If that child's dreadful mother had her way, Luke would never have had any contact with his daughter whatsoever and the poor girl would still be wondering where she came from. If April hadn't taken it upon herself to do some investigating, she'd still be in the dark and Luke still wouldn't know that he even had a daughter. Now, that horrible woman is doing whatever she can to make sure that there time together is as limited as it can be."

"I realize that, Emily, but it's not up us to interfere."

"Why shouldn't it be? This is our family, dammit!"She said thoroughly irritated with her husband's nonchalant attitude that mirrored her stubborn daughter's.

"I'm well aware that this is our family, but I'm simply suggesting that we leave it to Lorelai and Luke to handle. They are adults after all."

"But Lorelai is our child," Emily protested.

"I'm also aware of that, Emily. Just as Rory is Lorelai's, but you saw what happened today when Luke tried to interfere in her life."

"Maybe Luke was right to interfere," Emily pointed out. "He admitted himself that his nephew broke her heart once and now that she's getting mixed up with him again, he has a right to be concerned. You saw how the two of them were during the movie last night. That boy was all over her."

"You're exaggerating, Emily. He wasn't doing anything inappropriate, although I do have to wonder if maybe they aren't rushing things a little."

"You know something about this, don't you? Something that you're not sharing with me," Emily said coolly.

"I only know what Luke told me today, but I can't really share the details, Emily. I'm sorry."

"Richard…"She said in a pleading voice, desperate to know what had really caused Rory's coolness toward her family this afternoon.

"No, Emily," Richard said firmly. "I'm not going to betray Luke's confidence. If he'd wanted you to know what's going on, he would have told you himself."

"Do you honestly think that would ever happen? He's not the chattiest man in the world and I'm the last person he would share any kind of personal information with."

"Perhaps that's because of the way you've treated him in the past. Besides, it's not as though you haven't got a secret of your own. I noticed not-so- subtle way that you forced me and Luke out of the house after dinner this evening. You've obviously got some shared secret with Lorelai that I don't know about and I've yet to hear you volunteer any information on it."

"Fine! You've got your little secrets and I've got mine," Emily said bitterly. "I suggest we leave it at that."

"Whatever you say, dear," Richard replied as he returned to his book to end the conversation, leaving his wife no choice but to do the same.

Emily opened her mouth to say something else, but upon seeing Richard delving into his book determined to ignore her, she quickly closed it again and picked up her book, but was still unable to concentrate on it. After ten minutes of futilely trying to engross her mind in the fictional world she'd abandoned, she'd slammed the book down and said curtly, "I'm going to bed."

"Good night," Richard replied noncommittally without looking up from his book as his wife flounced toward the stairs. He knew that there was more bothering her regarding Lorelai's relationship with Luke than she was letting on, but he refused to take up her habit of meddling in their grown daughter's life.

* * *

Lorelai smiled a little as Luke pulled her flush against him as they settled into their usual spooning position post-lovemaking. She felt guilty for not following through on her promise to her mother to be honest with her fiancé, but she just couldn't bring herself to ruin the moment. She felt so comforted by Luke's strong embrace that she was afraid to let her idiotic fears destroy that. She sighed a little as she felt his arm protectively draped across the small mound that was their unborn children.

Luke held onto his bride-to-be for dear life, needing to be as close to her as possible. He knew that his outburst at dinner had had the potential to undo all the progress that they'd made in repairing the damage that his stubbornness had done to their relationship. He was just grateful that Lorelai had been so forgiving. "I love you," he whispered against her hair as he wrapped his body around hers and began to drift off to sleep.

At hearing his words spoken so tenderly, Lorelai felt another pang of guilt for keeping her feelings bottled up inside instead of sharing them with him. "Luke?"She began.

"Hmmm?"He murmured sleepily.

Lorelai wanted to tell him her fears, but she just couldn't do it so instead she whispered back, "I love you, too," as she laid her arm over his and snuggled into him, once again putting off the conversation she knew they needed to have to avoid stirring up more drama at the end of an already drama-filled day.


	49. Chapter 49

AN: I'm so sorry for the delay in updates on this story. My life has been crazy busy the past few weeks. My husband had an incident at work that resulted in broken ribs, making him oh so fun to deal with. Then he was scheduled for cataract surgery which required a lot of special pre-op care and finally the Indiana state bowling tournament was this past weekend on top of all my regular work stuff. Again, sorry, but not that Jim's surgery is over and things are calming down a little, I should have more time for writing. For this chapter, I decided to borrow some of the dialogue from "I'm ok, You're ok" for the scene in Anna's store since I skipped over the bit where Rory visits the store because I changed things enough that the store scene wasn't necessary. Thank you all for your patience while I was dealing with life stuff. I hope to not keep you waiting as long for the next update.

The following morning, Lorelai sat in her office at the Dragonfly finding it hard to concentrate on her work as she kept stewing over the unspoken tension between herself and Luke. She knew she was holding back from him when she shouldn't but she had a feeling that there was something that he was holding back from her as well. She hated feeling that way and that they seemed to have fallen into their old habit of not communicating. She reflected on her mother's words and wondered if she'd been right about her not being ready for marriage. She had wanted to be Luke's wife for so long, but she was beginning to see that they had a long way to go before their issues were completely worked out. It occurred to her that they'd sort of been in a honeymoon phase the past few weeks since discovering that she was pregnant and realigning their wedding plans. They were happy together, but the underlying problems that had caused the distance between them in the first place were still there. She couldn't help but wonder if it would always be this way. Along with their conversation last night, her mother's words from the day that they first looked at the new house kept randomly ringing through her head. _"I won't lie to you and say that once you say 'I do' everything's completely rosy. That kind of thinking is reserved for fairly tales and Harlequin novels." "I'm beginning to wonder if you care for him as much as you say you do." " I can't believe that I really thought that you were ready for a real adult, committed relationship." "You're supposed to be marrying Luke in less than a month, yet you're lying to him!" "You're not thinking of backing out?" "Are you that afraid of being settled down?" "You're going to lose him if you don't start being honest with him." _Lorelai closed her eyes, but still couldn't shut out her mother's nagging voice in her head. She finally couldn't take it anymore and picked up the phone and punched in her mother's cell phone number. When she heard her mother's voice on the other end she snapped, "Get out of my head, Mother!"

"I beg your pardon," Emily's affronted voice returned.

"You heard me. Get out of my head," Lorelai said again though she knew she sounded a little crazy.

"Lorelai?"Emily questioned.

"Yes, it's Lorelai. How many other people do you know who call you Mother? Do you have another kid out there that no one knows about too?"

"Don't be ridiculous, Lorelai. I was simply surprised. What kind of a greeting is that? I'd barely said hello and you're yelling at me when I've done nothing to deserve it."

"Oh, you deserve it. Trust me. All I've been hearing all day in my head is your voice just pick, pick, picking at me," Lorelai said before adding in a mocking voice, "I can't believe that I really thought that you were ready for a real adult, committed relationship," then in her own voice stated vehemently, "Well, I've got news for you, Mom. I _am_ ready for a real adult, committed relationship. I'm in one. That's what I have with Luke."

"I highly doubt that, Lorelai," her mother replied. "Given your defensive tone of voice, I'm guessing you still haven't told Luke how you really feel. In fact, I'll bet all you did was finish whatever it was the two of you had started earlier in the evening that made you forget about your dinner plans with us."

"This is going to be one of those things that you hold against me for the rest of my life, isn't it? I already said I was sorry that I momentarily forgot about dinner. What else can I do?"

"I'm not asking for apologies, Lorelai. I've become quite accustomed to the fact that you always make your parents your last priority. I'm not even talking about the dinner, though now that you bring it up, I feel I should tell you that I was a little hurt by it, especially after Rory abandoned us at lunch."

"I'm sorry that you were hurt by Rory's behavior, but that's not my fault. I didn't make Rory act the way she did."

"I know that. I'm not a complete moron. I know she did what she did to deliberately hurt Luke and it worked. That was obvious and now you're hurting him too."

"What the hell are you talking about, Mom? I'm not hurting Luke. I would never intentionally do anything to hurt Luke."

"I'm talking about your lack of communication with your future husband. I'm right, aren't I? The two of you just went to bed and you didn't talk to him at all, did you?"

Lorelai sighed, not wanting to admit to her mother that she was right and snapped, "How is that even your business?"

"It's not, but I feel that I should warn you that if you're just using sex as a substitute for real intimacy, you're going to regret it one day."

"I'm not doing that."

"Oh? What else would you call it? From what I've been hearing, you and Luke have had a very active sex life lately since getting your wedding plans back together, but I wonder now if that's just because you're both afraid to say what's really on your minds. Have you even dealt with the issues that caused your wedding to be postponed in the first place?"

"Yes, we have," Lorelai stated emphatically getting even more irritated with her mother than she had been before she called her.

"Then what was that argument at dinner about last night? If there are no remaining unresolved issues between you, there should be no reason to argue," Emily pointed out.

"You already know what the argument was about, Mom. It's about the fact that Luke's upset by Rory's bad behavior yesterday and by the fact that Christopher just moved back to Hartford, which says to Luke that he still hasn't given up on his childish dream of winning his way back into my life."

"But if Luke really felt secure in his relationship with you, there should be no reason for him to be disturbed the fact that Christopher has moved back to the area or that he still wants you back."

"That's crazy! Luke has no reason not to feel secure in our relationship. We've been together for two years and we're getting married three weeks from Saturday. That alone should be enough to make him feel secure."

"Not when you consider he's already been divorced once," Emily pointed out.

"God, not that again," Lorelai snapped. "When are you going to stop beating him up over his first marriage?"

"I'm not, Lorelai. I'm only trying to explain to you that since he's been married before, he's well aware of the fact that just because you make that commitment, that doesn't always guarantee that the marriage will last. Now, if you were being more open with him, perhaps he wouldn't feel as threatened by Christopher as he is. I know without a doubt just from spending more time with the two of you together how much in love with him you are, but he needs to know it too."

"Luke knows that I love him, Mom."

"Does he or do you just think he does?"

"Of course he knows," Lorelai said defensively though she didn't know whether she was trying to convince her mother or herself. She thought back to the events of the previous evening and how Luke had expressed his love her in no uncertain terms and how she had started to tell him what she was feeling about the Anna/April situation, but instead had hesitated and just told him that she loved him in return. She now wondered if Luke might have taken her hesitation as evidence that she didn't share his feelings. She felt a sense of panic begin to overtake her as she thought about it and felt the overwhelming urge to run to him right now and make sure that he knew that she loved him with all her heart. "Listen, Mom, I've got to go," she said now eager to get off the phone so she could talk to Luke.

"You know I'm right, don't you?"Emily crowed triumphantly.

"No," Lorelai lied not wanting to give her mother the satisfaction of admitting that she was right twice in less than twenty-four hours.

"Whatever you say, Lorelai," Emily said not believing it for a minute. "I have to go anyway. I have someplace to be," she added though not wanting to tell her daughter where that someplace to be was as she pulled her car up to the curb in front of a small boutique in Woodbridge. "I'll see you Friday," she said as she pushed the END button on her cell phone before stepping out of her car and surveying the shop in front of her with her typically critical eye.

Emily stepped inside the store and wasn't any more impressed with the inside of the shop as she'd been with the outside of it. She began to peruse the merchandise displayed there, trying to act nonchalant, as if she were an ordinary patron, though normally she wouldn't be caught dead in such a cramped, tiny, little store. She preferred expensive department stores with a large staff that she could bend to her will simply because they knew that catering to her every whim was essential to their continued employment. This was not such a place. She watched as another shopper stepped out of the fitting room and the woman who was assisting her said, "No." Emily couldn't help but agree. The outfit the woman was wearing was most definitely not flattering.

"What?"The other woman said.

"No," Anna repeated.

"But…"the customer protested.

"Trust me, at this moment I am your best friend in the world," she said.

The flustered shopper gestured toward the mirror and began, "Should I just look in the-"

"No." As her customer reached for another top, Anna stopped her with, "Not that either," as she reached for another garment from a nearby rack and thrust the top at the woman and shooed her back to the fitting room.

Emily observed this woman carefully as she interacted in a lively way with her customers and wondered if this was the woman with whom her future son-in-law had once had a love affair, the woman whose mere existence was causing her only daughter such heartache. She definitely looked the right age and she had the same dark hair and eyes as April. She could only assume that this was the mother of Luke's child, though she found it hard to believe that this seemingly bright, bubbly woman could have so heartlessly kept her child from her father for twelve years and purposely evaded all of her attempts to gain knowledge of where she comes from. She couldn't help but wonder how any mother could be so cruel to her own child as to deprive her of a chance to know her father, especially one who was as unselfish and giving as Luke seemed to be.

She had to admit that she herself had misjudged Luke at first, but she'd recently come to see that even though he had a gruff exterior, he was a man who cared deeply about the people around him. That much was evident in the way that he cared for Rory, a young woman who wasn't his, but whom he treated as if she were and in the way his younger sister adored him. She'd even stated zealously how she viewed him as her hero. It was also quite clear in the way the townspeople of Stars Hollow viewed him and the respect they showed him, even though he wasn't a huge part of the town's influential. He was simply a local businessman and happy to be so, yet his friends and neighbors treated him with reverence with the obvious exception of Taylor Doose who, from what she had observed, revered only himself and his position of power within the community. Then, of course, there was Lorelai, her own daughter who obviously loved this man more than she loved herself, so much so that she was willing to set aside her personal hurts in an effort to keep him happy and not cause him any stress. She'd never admit it to Lorelai, but she did admire her for that, even though she felt that not being honest with her future husband would only lead to trouble. She'd become so lost in her observations, that she'd failed to notice that she was being observed.

"Can I help you with something?"Anna asked cheerfully, noticing that the older woman seemed a little out of her element.

"No, thank you. I'm just looking," Emily replied coolly. "This is a nice place you have here," she added as sincerely as she could though she felt nothing of the sort.

"Somehow, I don't get the sense that you really mean that," Anna replied as she took in Emily's neatly tailored appearance. "Maybe this isn't your kind of boutique," she suggested. When she noticed the affronted look on Emily's face she added, "I just mean that you don't look like my typical customers."

"You're quite correct," Emily replied. "But I'm not shopping for myself. I'm shopping for my daughter. She would love a place like this. Are you the proprietress of this establishment?"

"Yep," she said with a proud smile on her face. "This is my baby, other than my daughter, I mean."

"Oh, you have a daughter?"Emily asked feigning surprise.

"Yeah, She's a great kid, too," she said with an even prouder smile on her face. "Smart as a whip, though I don't know what the hell she's talking about half the time. She just turned thirteen."

"How wonderful, You must be very proud of her," Emily said smiling now that she'd gotten the confirmation she needed that this woman was indeed the mother of the young girl she'd begun to view as her second granddaughter.

"Yeah, she's great."

"And her father? Is he around? I mean, I notice you're not wearing a wedding ring, so I can only assume that you're not together anymore."

Anna narrowed her eyes at Emily's prying and said, "Why do you ask?"

"Oh, it's not really any of my business, I was only curious because my daughter's a single mother and I know how hard it was for her raising her daughter alone."

"Being a single mom is definitely a challenge," Anna agreed. "But through all of the ups and downs I still wouldn't change a minute of it. April is my whole world."

"How lovely," Emily said. "So, her father's not around?"Emily probed trying to surreptitiously gauge just what Anna thought about Luke's involvement in their daughter's life and figure out why she was only allowing him limited time with his child.

"Why are you so concerned about her father?"Anna asked as she eyed Emily suspiciously.

"I'm merely curious. I've seen first-hand with my granddaughter, how not having a father around can affect a child. My daughter always allowed her child's father access to her, but sadly, he never took advantage of it until it was really too late to make a difference. He's involved in her life now, but she's closer to her future step-father than she is to her own father."

As Anna listened to Emily, she began to realize what was going on. She stared at her and her expensive suit, extravagant jewelry and perfectly coiffed hair and along with the tidbits she'd given her about her daughter and granddaughter, put the pieces together. "Your daughter is Lorelai, isn't she?"

"Yes," Emily said not bothering to deny now that her cover was blown.

"Is that why you're here, to check out the 'other woman'?"She asked sarcastically.

"I'd hardly call you the other woman," Emily replied hotly. "Luke is completely devoted to Lorelai."

"I'm well aware of that. If you're here because you think I'm some of threat to her relationship with Luke, you're barking up the wrong tree. Luke and I were over a very long time ago."

"That's not at all mu concern," Emily said. "Even if you were interested in resuming your relationship with Luke, I know that it would never happen. He and my daughter are getting married in a very short time."

"I got the invite to the wedding and April's going to be a bridesmaid, so I already know all that. Plus, I'm well aware of the fact that Lorelai's expecting twins. As far as I'm concerned Lorelai is welcome to him. He and I didn't exactly part on the best of terms when we broke up. In fact, it ended with a very ugly screaming match that I'd prefer to leave in the past."

"Is that why you're so reluctant to allow him ample time to get to know his daughter, to punish him for a break-up that happened more than a decade ago?"

"Not at all, "Anna replied. "I just don't want to take the chance that April will get too attached and then be crushed when he's not around anymore."

"Do you really think that Luke is the kind of man who would just abandon his responsibility to his child?"

"Listen, I've known Luke for more than fifteen years. I was there when he opened the diner and I know that Luke is not a kid guy and never has been."

"If he's not a 'kid guy' how do you account for the fact that he's doing everything he can to make sure that he includes April in every aspect of his life?"

"It's obvious that he's feeling guilty about the fact that he wasn't there for the first twelve years of her life, but that guilt won't last forever."

"From what I hear, that was _your_ doing. You kept him from ever knowing that he had a child."

"And if it were up to me, he'd never have known about her. April and I were doing just fine without him, but she wanted to know who her father was and I found out about it after the fact."

"Don't you think the girl had a right to know where she comes from?"

"Not when it comes at a price. Despite the misguided impression you've got of him, Luke's not a family man. Right now he's like a kid with a brand-new puppy. He's all excited by having someone to care for and love him unconditionally, but just like a kid; he'll get bored once the reality of parenting really sinks in. In fact I feel sorry for Lorelai. She acts like once they get married, everything's going to be just peachy, but what's going to happen after the twins are born and they've got their hands full caring for two newborn infants. She's in for a rude awakening, if you ask me. He's going to panic and want to bolt under the pressure and April's going to be the one to get hurt."

"I think you're wrong. I think he'd the kind of man who will do whatever it takes to properly care for his family and that includes April, but not if you refuse to allow him enough access to her to be a real father to her. It's amazing to me that you have a child with the man, yet you seem to know nothing about him."

"Well, it was never my intention to have a child with him," Anna snapped impatiently getting thoroughly irritated with Emily's attitude.

"Well, perhaps you should have thought of that before sleeping with him," Emily snapped back.

"I think you probably know as well as I do that he wasn't the man I was sleeping with at the time. I'm not proud of it, but it happened. You wanna know the real reason I never told April who her father was? It's because I didn't know myself until that damned DNA test!"

"How could you not know? For God's sake, the girl looks and acts just like him! Were you just in denial? Why didn't you have a DNA test done years ago?"

"Because I didn't want to know," Anna shouted. "I didn't want to have a DNA test confirm what I already suspected. I never wanted him to _be_ her father!"

"Well, whether you wanted it or not, he _is _her father and as her father, the man has rights! He has a right to spend as much time with his child as he wants, especially when you consider the fact that you kept him from knowing her for the first twelve years of her life."

"Look, this is _my _kid and _my _decision. It has nothing to do with you, so back off!"

"It has everything to do with me when my daughter is the one being hurt by all of this. Do you have any idea of the damage your irresponsibility has caused? Are you even aware that this surprise news nearly destroyed her relationship with Luke?"

"That's not my problem. My problem is doing what's best for my daughter and that doesn't include your input. Now, I would like you to leave. You've taken up more than enough of my time and I have a business to run."

"But…" Emily protested.

"I mean it, leave and don't come back," Anna said sternly. "No one is going to tell me what to do with my kid."

"Very well," Emily conceded. "But this isn't over by a long shot," she added menacingly as she walked out the door. When she was gone, Anna reached for the phone.

Lorelai went flying into the diner at her usual pace and as soon as she did, she heard the familiar sound of her fiancé's angry voice. "Anna, you're not being fair! I had nothing to do with the crap you're talking about...No, Anna, listen to me for once... I've been nothing but good to April...Lorelai's been nothing but good to her...This is nuts...I thought we were finally starting to….Anna...Anna?" When he realized that she was no longer on the line, he slammed the phone back into its cradle on the wall and kicked the counter in frustration.

Seeing the anger etched on her fiancé's face made Lorelai question her motivation for coming to the diner. She didn't think that this would be a good time to voice her concerns now. Instead she said, "Luke, coffee, please, and please, please, please, let me have the real stuff for once."

"No," he bellowed. "What's it going to take for you to realize that I don't want you drinking coffee while you're pregnant?"

"Come on, Luke! I just had probably the worst conversation I've ever had with my mother in my life! I need real coffee!"

"During that conversation with your mother, you wouldn't have happened to imply to her that we're having problems, would you?"

"No, where the hell did you get an idea like that?"

"Gee, I don't know, maybe the fact that you and your mother felt the need to have a private little pow-wow without me around last night or it could be the fact that she went to see Anna and _told _her that we were on the verge of breaking up over this situation with April! I can only assume that you put her up to it!"

"What? No! Why would I do that?"

"You tell me. You're the one who's been getting all chummy with your mom lately. I knew this was a mistake!"

"What was a mistake? You and me," Lorelai questioned.

"No, of course not! Letting your mother get this involved in our lives was a mistake! Letting you get this involved with Anna and April! This kind of thing is exactly why I wanted to keep you out of this! I knew that you wouldn't let me just handle things the way I wanted to! Now, Anna doesn't want April spending time with us at the house at all!"

"What? I thought we proved after this weekend that we would take good care of April."

"That was before your mother got involved and basically called Anna an unfit mother and made it sound like you and I are splitting up! She says now the only way that she'll let me see April is if it's here in the diner and only then, if you're not here! What's this all about, Lorelai? Is there something you want to tell me? _Are _we splitting up?"

"No! God, no, Luke! We are _not _splitting up! How can you even think that after all we've been through?"

"Well, your mother must have gotten the idea from somewhere! If you want out, just say so now! Let me know if I'm gonna have to fight you too to spend time with my kids!"

"Like you'd ever fight me to see your kids," Lorelai said sarcastically.

"You think I wouldn't fight for my rights when it comes to my kids?"

"I don't know, Luke. You don't seem to be fighting too damn hard for your rights when it comes to April," Lorelai pointed out.

"Just what the hell is that supposed to mean? I've done everything I can to spend time with April!"

"Except for stand up to Anna and make her allow you more time with April! You've done nothing but let her call all the shots! She tells you when you can see April and when you can't, what you're allowed to do with her and what you're not! You've never been the kind of man to just sit there and take what life hands you or let anyone else dictate to you how you live your life. Why are you doing it now?"

"Because she could keep me from seeing my kid at all," Luke shouted. "You don't get that because you've never been on this side of it. You were the one who had sole custody of Rory and Christopher never fought to spend any time with her at all. He just popped in once in a while to say 'Hey, Kiddo, how ya doin' without ever really taking an interest in her life. I want_ more_ than that with April and the way I've been doing things is the way to get what I want!"

"What about what _I_ want? We're supposed to be partners in case you've forgotten! You used to care about what I want!"

"What you want isn't relevant. This is _my _kid we're talking about!"

"So, it's ok for you to get involved in my kid's life and give her your opinion about how she's living her life, but it's not ok for me to have a say in your kid's life?"

"This is different. Rory's a grown-up, April's still a kid."

"That didn't stop you from meddling in Rory's personal life and pissing her off in the process!"

"So, what, that gives you the right to sic your mother on Anna?"

"I didn't do that! I had no idea she was going to see Anna and if I had, I'd have stopped her. The only thing I told my mother is that I hated the way Anna was controlling the whole situation and that you were letting her!"

"That's something you should've talked to _me _about, not your mother! I thought when we started getting our lives back on track that we both agreed that we would tell each other everything!"

"Oh, just like we _both_ agreed after we had that fight about Christopher calling that we wouldn't keep secrets from each other, but you turned around and kept the fact that you have a daughter a secret from me for two months?"Lorelai said stormily. "I guess that 'no secrets' rule only applies to me."

"Dammit, Lorelai! How long are you gonna hold that against me? I thought you understood about that! I thought you'd forgiven me for that!"

"I thought I had too, but I guess I still have a problem with it. That was something huge that you should have trusted me with and you didn't! Why didn't you trust me enough to share that with me?"

"That wasn't about not trusting you! That was about not trusting me! I told you that already! Besides, it's not like you were any better about trusting me when all that crap was going on with Rory!"

"I already told you that that wasn't about trusting you, but about _not _trusting my mother!"

"Oh, but you suddenly trust you mother enough now to share personal details with her that you don't even share with me? So much that she feels that gives her free reign to start meddling in our lives again? You didn't hear Anna on the phone just now and how pissed she was!"

"That's not my fault! I didn't send her there! I only told her that I thought you deserved to be a bigger part of April's life but I also told her to stay out of it and let us handle it!"

"Is that why she was grilling me about my visitation with April at dinner last night? Because _you _told her that you weren't happy with the arrangement I have with Anna?"

"What _arrangement_, Luke? You don't know from one week to the next when and if you're going to get to see April. That makes it nearly impossible for us to make long-term plans for our lives. Not to mention how confusing this whole thing must be to April. If there's one thing I've learned as a single mother, it's that kids need some kind of stability. You should have some kind of regular visitation schedule with April, not just two hours here and three hours there. It's not fair to you or to her not to have that! It doesn't seem to bother you at all that that's how it is. You just go with it and it's wrong!"

"It's _my _decision, Lorelai," he said gruffly.

"Funny, I thought since we were supposed to be getting married all decisions are supposed to be made by _both_ of us. This is _our _family we're talking about. April is going to be a big sister to _our _kids so we should both have a say in how involved in our life together she is."

"Don't you get it, Lorelai? Anna made it very clear there is no _our _anything when it comes to April! Your mother's interference made sure of that!"

"But…"

"It's done, Lorelai! I tried to change Anna's mind, but I couldn't."

"Luke…"

"I said it's done! Look, _I'm _her father!"

"Than why don't you start acting like it?"

"What the hell do you think I've been trying to do? Thinks were going fine, but you just couldn't leave well enough alone."

"Because you're not acting like her father. You're acting like a stranger that she just happens to share DNA with."

"That's all I was to her up until a few months ago. I'm doing everything I can to be as much a part of her life as I can."

"Everything except fighting for your rights," Lorelai said her voice tinged with sadness. "You're letting Anna treat you like you're still that stranger in your daughter's life. When are you going to wake up and realize that? Are you going to let this drag on until you're looking back ten years from now when she's ready to graduate from college like Christopher is now and realize that you don't know your own daughter?"  
"How can you compare me to Christopher? I'm nothing like him! I'm at least making an effort to be a part of my kid's life, something he never did until it was too late!"

"That's my point, Luke. I don't want you to wait until it's too late and have April's only memories of her dad being glimpses here and there. I think you and Anna should sit down and talk about this like rational adults and work this out."

"I tried. Anna won't budge."

"From what I heard of your phone conversation, it didn't sound like there was much talking going on, only shouting."

"Well, she pissed me off when she started talking about our relationship being unstable. I was defending you, but it seems like she was right. Maybe we are on the verge of a break-up and just don't know it yet."

"Luke, don't say that. It's not true. Our wedding is right around the corner."

"Maybe it shouldn't be," Luke said in a quieter voice. "Maybe I was in such a hurry to fix things between us that I jumped the gun. Maybe we need to reconsider getting married so soon."

"No, I don't wanna wait anymore. Don't you want to marry me?"Lorelai asked with tears in her eyes.

"More than anything, but maybe we're just not ready," he said sadly.

"I…um…I should get back to the inn," Lorelai said not wanting to hear anymore.

"Lorelai, wait," Luke said not wanting her to go until they'd talked but she was already out of her seat and halfway out the door.

"I'll see you later," she said as she hustled out the door before he could see the tears streaming down her face.

"Shit!" Luke shouted as he aimed another well-placed kick at the counter, mentally kicking himself as well. Unknown to both him and Lorelai, Reverend Skinner had been sitting at the corner table by the window watching the whole mess unfold and making mental notes for his meeting with them that evening.


	50. Chapter 50

AN: I know this chapter is a little short compared to some of the previous ones, but I have a lot coming up in the next one. I had intended to have the wedding chapter done and posted by June 3rd, so that it coincided with the wedding date (and my birthday) but sadly, that isn't going to happen now unless something drastically changes in my life in the next two days. Now that I'm done dealing with my hubby's medical issues for the moment, I have to deal with my own and I hate doctors. I will be taking a much needed vacation in two weeks so I'm hoping to get some more writing done in that time. I plan to do some of it on the plane to Reno on my trusty laptop. I've already got the next chapter started and am hoping to get it done by this weekend. Thanks to all who have been patiently waiting, reading and reviewing. I love the reviews. You guys are great!

Lorelai got into her jeep with tears spilling down her cheeks as Luke's words tore at her heart. _Maybe we need to reconsider getting married so soon_, _maybe we're just not ready_ She'd heard nearly the same words from her mother last night, but with her mother it was a lot easier to brush off the words since she knew in her heart what she and Luke had together or she had thought she did. Now it seemed like he was thinking the same way as Emily Gilmore. God, why did she always have to poison everything? The more she thought about it, though, the more she realized that her mother wouldn't have done what she'd done if Lorelai herself had come clean with Luke about her feelings. She'd never admit it to her mother, of course. That would mean swallowing her pride and admitting that she'd been wrong and that was something Lorelai just couldn't do. She felt like it was her own fault that everything was ruined. All she'd wanted was Luke to be able to have a real visitation schedule with his daughter, for him to step up and fight for his rights as her father rather than letting Anna run everything.

As her overly busy mind tormented her, she started thinking about the night that she'd discovered Luke had moved all of her stuff over to the house and how she'd told her mother about her pregnancy scare last year. She didn't know what had really made her think of it in that moment, but looking back on it now, she knew exactly what she'd been thinking then. She'd been wondering if things would have been different for her and Luke if it had turned out not to be a false alarm. She wondered how Luke would have reacted to the discovery that he had a daughter if she'd already been carrying his child at the time. Would he have still kept this secret from her for two months? Would he still have kept her separate from his life with April if they were already starting a family of their own or would it still be something that would drive a wedge between them? She couldn't help wishing now that she had been pregnant then. Maybe then he wouldn't have left her alone so much to spend time with April without her. She saw how protective he was of her and their unborn twins and had a feeling that it would have made all the difference in the world. He would never have abandoned her to be with another woman's child. He might have even included April in their life together sooner. She wished now that she hadn't freaked out about the possibility and had told Luke her fears then. Maybe then, they would have started trying to have a baby together. She'd found out just a week later that he really wanted kids. They could have already had a baby together by now. They could have already been married by now. Then when April had shown up, she wouldn't be made to feel like the other woman. She would have been the first to tell him that he was a daddy, even if she wasn't the first to actually give him a child.

Lorelai was so lost in her musings that she had arrived back at the inn before she realized it. She pulled the jeep into its usual spot and hurried into the inn, walked hurriedly past Michel, who was schmoozing a guest at the front desk with his usual insincere charm, and into the sanctuary of her office, not even noticing that the Frenchman had tried to talk to her as she sailed past him. She shut the office door behind her, leaned against it and closed her eyes as the tears continued to flow.

"I'm glad you're here, Lorelai," Kirk's voice rang out startling her as she hadn't noticed he was there.

"Kirk, hi," she said trying to sound friendly in spite of the fact that she really just wanted to be alone. "Excuse me a second," she said as she stepped out of the office wiping her tears away as she went and approached Michel asking him in a harsh whisper, "Michel, what the hell is Kirk doing in my office?"

"Well, if you would ever bother to answer your cell phone, you would know," Michel said testily now that the guest he'd been assisting was out of earshot.

"My cell phone?"Lorelai questioned.

"Yes, you know that tiny little portable device that was invented to receive calls while you're away from your office. Of course, that only works if you actually answer it. I tried to call you to let you know that Kirk was here after you left so abruptly without one word about where you were going."

"Just so we're clear, I'm the boss here. I don't have to answer to you." After the day she'd already had, she was in no mood to deal with Michel's typical derision.

"Whatever," Michel said with a dismissive wave of his hand. "It would still be considered courteous to let one's co-workers know where you're going so that you can be reached in a situation like this. I tried to call you cell phone while you were away, but the whole point of having a cell phone seems to be lost on you, since you don't answer it."

"Michel, I don't know what you're talking about. I never got a call from you. My phone would show a missed call if you had," she said as she rummaged through her purse for her phone.

"That is not my problem. I called it. Maybe your phone isn't working. Perhaps you should take that up with your service provider," he said as he returned to his post behind the front desk.

"My phone is working just fine," she said in a huff as she flipped it open. She cringed when she saw that it indeed did show a missed call from the inn. She must not have heard it ring during her fight with Luke. "Well, what's Kirk doing here?"

"I have no idea. He simply said he had an appointment with you and I didn't ask for more details. I have no desire to make idle chit-chat with the imbecile so I sent him into your office to wait for you in the hopes that you wouldn't be shirking your duties for the entire day. Now, if you'll excuse me, _some _of us have work to do."

Lorelai realized Michel was dismissing her. She'd worked with him long enough to know that she wasn't going to get any further with him. With a resigned sigh she turned and walked back to her office to deal with Kirk. As she re-entered her private domain she realized what she'd failed to notice on her first entry into her office due to her tears and that was that Kirk had spread several CD carrying cases across her desk. It hit her then what he was there for. She now remembered that she'd set up an appointment with him to start picking music for the wedding, a wedding that might not be happening now if Luke had his way.

Lorelai couldn't help but reflect on the harsh words that she and Luke had spoken to each other in the diner and felt a stabbing pain in her chest as she once again heard his statement "_maybe we're just not ready."_ She recalled the pathetic voice in which she'd asked him, _"Don't you want to marry me," _and cringed at her own weakness. As much as she hated to admit it, her mother was right. She hadn't been acting like herself. She'd always prided herself on her independence and her ability to get by just fine without a man in her life but now it seemed that her whole world, including her future happiness, revolved around this one man. Though he'd answered, _"More than anything," _he clearly _didn't _want to marry her if he was going to let Anna come between them. It was evident by his behavior today that his relationship with April was more important to him than his relationship with her. He obviously wasn't going to change his actions when it came to spending time with her and was still going to let Anna run everything. It didn't matter that it was _their _family that would be destroyed in the process. He made that pretty clear when he stated that April was_ his_ daughter. It was apparent by that statement and his past actions in keeping her out of his dealings with her that he wasn't willing to share that part of his life with her and how could they build a life together if they didn't share everything? She felt the tears welling up again, but blinked them back out of stubborn pride. She didn't want Kirk to see her crying, not when he was there to help her with her wedding plans. She was really not in the mood to pick out wedding music when she wasn't even sure anymore that the wedding was going to happen. "Sorry about that, Kirk," she said apologetically. "I had to talk to Michel about something."

"That's ok," Kirk said oblivious to the fact that anything was wrong.

"Is there any chance that we can do this some other time," she asked. "I didn't realize when I set this up how much other stuff I have to do."

"No can do, Lorelai. I've got my other jobs to work around and this is the only time I'll be able to work you in between now and your wedding day. It _is _only a little over three weeks away now, you know," he reminded her.

"Yeah, I know," she said in a melancholy tone adding to herself _if we make it that long._

"You guys haven't changed your mind about having me be your DJ, have you?" Kirk asked the disappointment evident on his face.

"No, of course we haven't," Lorelai said allaying his fears, _just the wedding part. No, _she argued with herself. _The wedding is not off. _She took a deep breath and asked, "So, where do we start?" She was determined that she was going to keep things business as usual and continue with the wedding plans until it was one hundred percent for sure that it wasn't going to happen. If it came to that, she'd cancel stuff if she had to. She'd done it once before, she could do it again.

Kirk's face brightened at Lorelai's assurance and said, "Well, since you haven't really picked a particular musical style for the wedding, I was thinking that we'd start with the first dance song and work the rest of the music around it. Now, I've picked out some selections that I thought would fit you and Luke given your history. I thought you could pick the one that you like the best, unless you have a particular song in mind?"

"No, I really don't," she said truthfully. All she'd really thought about recently was getting them to their wedding day, something that may not even happen now. _Stop it, Lorelai, _she admonished herself. It's not over until both you and Luke decide it's over. "So, let's see what you've got," she said more enthusiastically than she felt, but she didn't want to see that hurt little boy look on Kirk's face again. He'd been so looking forward to being a part of their wedding that she couldn't bear to tell him that there was a chance it might not happen.

"Well, since you and Luke were friends for so long before you got together, there's the obvious, _Friends and Lovers,_" Kirk suggested.

"I don't think so, Kirk."

"Are you sure. I thought that one would be perfect for you guys."

"It's a good idea, Kirk, but I'm looking for something a little different."

"Ok, no problem. As you can see here, I have a wide variety of musical selections," he said indicating the CD carrying cases he had scattered across her desk.

"I can see that, Kirk," she said. "So, what else have you got?"

"Well, I know you're not really into country, but there's this great Faith Hill duet called _I've Got This Friend, _that pretty much describes you and Luke too."

"I don't think I've heard that one," she said.

"I could play it for you," Kirk suggested with a hopeful look in his eyes.

"Let me see what else you've got first," she said getting a little weary of Kirk's enthusiasm about her wedding when she couldn't muster up any herself knowing that there was a chance they might not get married after all. The more she thought about it though, the more she thought that maybe if she kept a positive attitude, maybe that would make the difference. "On second thought, Kirk, go ahead and play it. Maybe it will be just what I'm looking for," she said trying to reawaken the fervor she'd had when she'd first made their original wedding plans.

Kirk beamed as he inserted the CD into the portable boom box he'd brought with him," Just wait until you hear this one. I think you'll like it if you give it a chance," he said as he pressed the play button.

"I'll give it a chance," she promised as the music started playing. She'd never heard the song before, but as she listened closely and let the lyrics register in her mind, she realized that Kirk was right. It did relate to her and Luke. _I've got this friend, who is lonely, she's afraid she'll never find her one and only… _As the song played on, she realized that the song was about two friends who were talking to each other about finding someone, but in reality were talking about each other. That had been her and Luke over the years when they'd shared the pain of their respective heartaches, but were reluctant to admit the reason they couldn't make it work with anyone else was because they wanted each other. _Maybe in each other, they might find a lover, they've been missing up 'til now… _This time, Lorelai couldn't stop the tears from flowing as the haunting melody of the song washed over her.

When the song ended, Kirk hit the stop button on the boom box abruptly drawing Lorelai out of her reverie. "That songs gets you right here, doesn't it?" he said waving in the direction of his heart, misunderstanding the reason for her tears.

"Yeah, it really does," she said hastily wiping away her tears. "Powerful song," she added trying to brush off her emotions as being inflicted the song. "I don't think it's quite what I'm looking for though. I don't want to be a blubbering mess on my wedding day."

"That's ok," Kirk said shrugging off her emotional meltdown. "I've got plenty of other options here."

"Let's move on then," she said as she began to peruse Kirk's music collection in earnest hoping to find something that would strike the right note and maybe ease the pain in her heart.

Luke found it increasing harder to concentrate on his work as the day wore on. He kept reliving both his screaming match with Anna and the ensuing argument with Lorelai over and over again in his mind. He couldn't get the hurt look on Lorelai's face out of his head when he'd suggested that maybe they'd been trying too hard to move forward with their lives after the hurt they'd inflicted on each other over the past few months. He'd wanted nothing more than to take back the words and erase the pained expression from her face. He never wanted to cause her any hurt, but in his anger with Anna and with Emily, he'd done exactly that. He'd been doing that a lot lately. Last night, he'd been upset over finding out that Christopher had moved back to the area and had lashed out at Lorelai over it. He'd been mad at Rory and taken it out on April and now he'd done the same thing to Lorelai. What he'd told her had been true, though. He wanted nothing more than to marry her, but he couldn't help but wonder if in all of his efforts to repair the damage done to their relationship, if they'd just skated over the issues that had caused their estrangement in the first place. They'd talked about it, but he wondered whether they'd really forgiven each other. They'd both kept things from each other and they were both guilty of keeping each other separate from their lives with their respective daughters. He'd never felt like more of an outsider than during Lorelai and Rory's painful separation. It was strange to him that he'd felt like he was a bigger part of Rory's life before he and Lorelai had even gotten together than he'd felt when they'd first gotten engaged.

Luke sighed as he really started to think about how badly he'd screwed things up. He'd thought he was doing the right thing by following Anna's lead regarding his visits with April. He knew Anna well enough to know that if he pushed too hard, she'd just stop his visitation altogether. It wasn't as though he really had a legal leg to stand on. He hadn't been a part of April's life for her first twelve years and even though it was because he'd never known that she existed, it was really his word against Anna's if it came down to a court battle. She could always claim that he'd known all along and that he'd willingly chosen not to be a part of his daughter's life. Not to mention the fact that his name wasn't even on her birth certificate. All he wanted was to spend time with his daughter in whatever way he could without stirring up a bunch of drama, but that's exactly what had happened when Emily Gilmore had gotten involved.

Luke cursed himself for allowing Emily that much involvement in his life with Lorelai. He'd known from the start that it was a mistake. He knew his future mother-in-law well enough to know that she couldn't be satisfied with just helping with their wedding. That much had been clear when she'd started on her crusade to buy them a house. He'd been firmly against it in the beginning because he'd known that she wouldn't be able to help butting into their lives even more, but he'd let Lorelai talk him into it to keep the peace. As much as she tried to deny it, she really did want to have a better relationship with her mother and he wanted her to have it. He wouldn't deny her anything if he thought it would make her happy. He cared more for her happiness than he did his own. That and the happiness of his children. Now that he thought about it, it occurred to him that it hadn't been only Lorelai who'd talked him into the house. It had been his girls too. April and Rory had been equally excited about the new house. He sighed as he resigned himself to the fact that he'd agreed to it primarily for the good of his family. Emily hadn't been wrong in her assertion that they would need a bigger home for their children, especially with twins on the way. He didn't begrudge Emily for wanting to make sure that her unborn grandchildren were well taken care of. If his parents were still around, they'd have felt the same way. He just wished there was a way to make Emily understand that the purchase of the house as a wedding gift didn't entitle her to meddle in other aspects of their life.

Luke had become so engrossed in his own head that he found himself doing everything as if on autopilot to the point that he didn't even register anyone around him. He barked orders at Caesar, refilled coffee cups, delivered plates of food and ran the cash register without ever noticing the activity within the diner. This was probably a good thing because if he'd been paying close attention, he'd have noticed the quizzical look on Reverend Skinner's face as he paid for his food and how he stood there for several minutes after being handed his change, simply staring at Luke as if trying to gauge what was going on in his head. The minister shook his head as Luke didn't seem to even acknowledge his presence before getting his attention by saying, "Don't forget our appointment this evening. Six O'clock."

"Um….Right….I remember," Luke stammered having forgotten during his flare-up of temper that the reverend had even been in the diner this morning. "I'll…um…I'll see you then. I…um…I've got some orders to check on," he said as he walked toward the kitchen to escape the reverend's piercing glance. "Caesar, trade me places," he barked as his cook as he entered the kitchen. He was in no mood to deal with people anymore.

"You got it, Boss," Caesar said not wanting to question his employer's orders once he saw the perturbed look on his face. He'd heard the fight he'd had with Lorelai and knew in a situation like that it was best to just stay out of Luke's way. It had been the same way during that time when Luke and Lorelai had broken up. He just hoped things weren't headed that way this time. He liked it much better when things were going well with Lorelai. It put his boss in a much better mood. Caesar took once last look at his boss and his furrowed brow before making a hasty retreat from the kitchen to the front counter where he immediately grabbed a coffee pot and began making the rounds through the diner.

Reverend Skinner, who'd be hoping that Luke really was just checking on orders, realized as he watched Caesar move through the diner as Luke had been just a few minutes ago that Luke was purposely avoiding him. "I'll see you later, Luke!" he called in the direction of the kitchen making sure Luke knew he was still there and had no intention of letting things go. Luke wouldn't be able to escape this evening. He guessed that the diner owner would try to duck out of it, but if he knew Lorelai, she wouldn't let him. When he heard Luke reply gruffly, "Yeah, yeah," he turned to leave and begin making plans for his meeting with the town's favorite couple.

When Kirk left the dragonfly after a successful music-planning session, Lorelai sank into her desk chair completely drained. She had momentarily felt better actually doing something to plan her wedding to Luke than she had when she was just sitting and stewing about the situation. She knew that dwelling on the fight with Luke would serve no purpose other than to get her upset again and potentially put their unborn children at risk. She knew that she had to do her best to stay calm for their sake, but she still couldn't get everything off of her mind. She could no longer just sit here and fret about it. Her mother's reminder that she hadn't been acting like herself struck her and she realized that it was time to take action. She grabbed her purse, exited the office and called to Michel, "I have somewhere I have to be. You're in charge!"

Lorelai ignored Michel muttering under his breath "Imagine that," as she sailed out the door toward her jeep and began to make her way to Hartford.


	51. Chapter 51

Author's note: I'm so sorry about the very long delay. My life has had one dramatic turn after another since June and I'm just now able to get back to writing. I won't bore you all with the details, but I will say that I'm glad to be back and hope to update more frequently in the future. That is, if my loyal readers haven't forgotten me by now. Thanks for your great partience while I sorted out my personal drame so that I could return to Luke and Lorelai's drama. Chapter 52 has been started and should be posted within the next couple of days providing my real life will allow me time for my fictional life. On an additional note, I've changed the rating on this story because in re-reading a few pieces to get my head back into the story, I've come to realize that some parts are probably a little higher than a T-rating. I know this makes it harder to find, but I think it's necessary. To those of you who've been reading "Emily's Revenge," I plan on doing the same with it.

Thanks to those who have taken the time to PM me to ask what's been going on and if I'm ok. I greatly appreciate it.

Lanie

Emily Gilmore was sitting in her dining room perusing the guest list and seating chart trying to make sure that everything was going to be perfect for her daughter's wedding day when her doorbell rang. "Amanda, the doorbell's ringing," she called to her newest maid as she continued what she was doing. When the doorbell rang again several times in rapid succession, she sighed, rose from her seat and went to answer it. She had barely turned the doorknob when her very irate daughter barreled through the door shouting, "What the hell is wrong with you? Are you trying to ruin everything?"

"I beg your pardon?"Emily questioned, immediately going on the offensive at hearing Lorelai's tone.

"Don't give me that innocent look like you don't know what I'm talking about, Mom. You went to see Anna today," Lorelai said hotly. She didn't care anymore about trying to be polite to her mother just for the sake of them getting along. She was unbelievably angry with her for her actions that had caused the rift between her and Luke.

"So what?"

"So what," Lorelai said incredulously. "That's all you have to say for yourself?"

"Well, _someone_ had to act. It was quite clear that you weren't about to do it yourself. All you've done about the situation is stew and fret and cry about it, but you seem completely unwilling to do anything to change it," she reminded her daughter. "I did what I felt had to be done."

"What _you_ felt had to be done? This has nothing to do with what you feel! I can't believe you did this! You went there behind my back after I begged you to stay out of it and now because you didn't listen to me, Anna is furious with Luke and has made it clear that she doesn't want me around April anymore. She told Luke today that the only way he can see April now is at the diner and then only if I'm not there!"

"You can't be serious, Lorelai. You're going to be that child's step-mother! She can't keep you from spending time with her."

"Yes, she can! She's her mother! Not only can she stop me from spending time with her, but she can stop Luke from seeing her too, which she has made clear is exactly what's going to happen if Luke doesn't cooperate with her."

"That's just ridiculous. Someone needs to talk to her again," Emily said as she attempted to push past her daughter toward the front door.

"Not you! You've done enough damage for one day," Lorelai said as she blocked her mother's path.

"I don't see how you can blame me for what's happening here when all I did was what any concerned mother should do to protect her only daughter."

"By making it sound like Luke and I are unstable and on the verge of a break-up? How is that supposed to help?"

"I did no such thing, Lorelai. I merely told that horrible woman that what she was doing was wrong and that she needs to look at how her irresponsible act of keeping Luke's child from him for years has affected him."

"It wasn't your place to do that." Lorelai cried vehemently.

"No, it was _yours,_" Emily replied pointedly.

"No, it wasn't. It was Luke's responsibility to say something to Anna, not yours or mine," Lorelai argued.

"Well, how on earth was he supposed to know to say anything when you're keeping him in the dark about how this is affecting you?"

"He's not in the dark anymore thanks to you! Now he's pissed at me because I didn't tell him about it. We had the most awful fight and now he's talking about how maybe the wedding shouldn't happen at all!"

"What? You must be overreacting. Of course this wedding is going to happen! Do you know how much effort I've put in to making sure that it _does _happen?" she said as she took her daughter by the arm to lead her into the living room to show her what she'd been doing. "I've working on this for the past two hours, ever since I got back from that woman's nasty little hole in the wall that she calls a boutique. I'd have still been working on it if the ridiculous maid service I use would send me someone who knows how to answer a door!"

Lorelai looked at the guest list and seating chart Emily had meticulously laid out on the dining room table and felt another stab of pain at the thought that everyone was working so hard to make sure that her wedding day was perfect when she wasn't even sure that it was going to happen. When she'd entered the inn in the early morning, Sookie had been gushing about her plans for the menu, which was what had caused her to hide in her office in the first place, and then she'd had Kirk and his music to deal with, now her mother. She couldn't hold back the tears any longer when she said to her mother in a softer tone, "This is great that you're doing this, Mom, but just because you make plans that doesn't means that it's going to happen. Luke said today that he thought maybe we were making a mistake getting married so soon."

"Well, that's just absurd," Emily said getting irritated with her only daughter's self-pitying attitude. "You have to know that he didn't mean it."

"How do I know that? It was his idea to postpone the wedding in the first place. Let's face the facts, Mom. He doesn't want to marry me."

"Lorelai, you're being ridiculous. Of course he wants to marry you. That man has been in love with you for years, even when you were to blind or too dumb to see it."

"Yeah, but that doesn't mean that he's ready to get married. I mean, he married Nicole on the spur of the moment and look where that ended up. They weren't even married for a whole year. Maybe he's just not the marrying kind. Maybe he…"Her voice trailed off as she was once again overwhelmed by sadness.

"Lorelai, stop it," Emily demanded. "You're making yourself crazy, I mean, crazier than usual. I know for a fact that Luke does want to marry you."

"How could you possibly know that when I've known him for ten years and I don't even know that? I know him better than you could ever know him."

"That's exactly the problem, Lorelai. You're too close to the situation to look at it objectively. I, on the other hand, have been a quiet observer of your relationship with Luke ever since I met him at Rory's sixteenth birthday party."

"Quiet?"Lorelai questioned with a chuckle. "I seem to recall that night that you said he was looking at me like I was a porterhouse steak, and then the night he drove me to the hospital to see dad that you told him we were both idiots."

"He told you about that?"

"Yeah, he did. Even before we were a couple, we talked about everything."

"It doesn't seem that way anymore. Maybe that's what your problem is. You don't talk about everything like you used to," Emily suggested.

"Is this your opinion as a _quiet _observer," Lorelai quipped. "Like the time you told me that the diner was going to be my reception hall with a ketchup dispenser for a bouquet?"

"Ok, so maybe I haven't been so quiet, but I was right about you wanting to marry Luke, wasn't I? And as for the locale of the wedding, I wasn't far off. You're getting married in the square that the diner overlooks."

"Ok, you got me there, but there won't be any ketchup dispenser bouquet."

"I'm glad to hear that," Emily said with a slight frown as she thought of how distasteful that would be. "Now, to get to the point I was trying to make, while I still don't know Luke all that well, I do know one thing about him and that is that he is completely in love with you and he _does _want to marry you."

"How can you be so sure of that when I'm not even sure of it anymore?"

"Weren't you listening Friday night when you were upset?"

"Yeah, I was listening. He told me he loved me whether I was fat or not," Lorelai said remember all too well her hormonal breakdown in front of her parents.

"He said a lot more than that. He sat right here at this very table and said in no uncertain terms that he wasn't going to let anything stop your wedding, even a freak blizzard hitting Stars Hollow," she reminded her daughter, hoping that her words would sink in.

"He was just saying that because I was upset," Lorelai argued

"I highly doubt that, Lorelai. I don't gather that Luke is the kind of man to say something like that and not mean it. I'm sure that whatever he said to you today in the heat of the moment was just out of anger toward Anna, not you."

"Maybe," she said as she pondered her mother's statement. Much to her horror, she was once again thinking that her mother was right. When she'd entered the diner earlier, she _had _walked in on Luke mid-fight with Anna. That had probably already made him agitated and she hadn't made it any easier by admitting that she'd been hiding her feelings from him.

"There's no _maybe _about it, Lorelai. I know what I'm talking about. Now, I have to get ready to go. I have a meeting with Sookie in an hour to finalize all of this. I was trying to get a head start on it when you arrived so I wouldn't have to keep Sookie away from her kitchen for too long. Speaking of which, didn't you have some wedding errands of your own to do today? I thought you said that you and Luke were supposed to be applying for your license."

"We were, but who knows if we still will be," Lorelai said morosely.

"You stop that kind of thinking this instant," Emily admonished her daughter. "I mean it, Lorelai. I'm tired of this. This weepy 'poor me' attitude is not you and we both know it. You've always been a take-charge kind of woman who doesn't give up until she gets what she wants, so go back to Stars Hollow and do what it takes to get what you want and do _not _let that woman get to you!"

"Ok," Lorelai said with a nod. She had to admit her mother had a point. She _was _giving in too easily. She and Luke were going to make it, whether Anna thought so or not and she was going to prove to her that she would be a good step-mother to April. She began to walk back toward the front door, before turning back to her mother and impulsively gripping her in a tight hug and saying, "Thanks, Mom."

Emil hugged her back in silence for a moment before shooing her away and saying sincerely, "You're welcome. Now, go! I'll be right behind you. I've got a wedding to help get ready for."

Lorelai simply smiled at her mother as made her way to the front door trying to come up with the right words to apologize to Luke.

Luke walked hesitantly up the front steps of The Dragonfly to pick Lorelai up for their pre-wedding errands. He lingered on the porch thinking he was not quite sure he was ready to see her yet after the way they'd spoken to each other in the diner. The truth was he really wanted to see her, but he wasn't sure that she was ready to see him and he didn't have one clue what to say to her to make things right and prove to her once and for all that he loved her and he really did want to marry her. He leaned on the porch rail and thought about how much they'd been through to get to this point in their lives and how hard it would be if things didn't work out between them.

As he stared at the front door, Luke recalled that first kiss two years ago that had started the whole thing and of how nervous he'd been that weekend, knowing that things between him and the object of his affection were on the verge of changing drastically. He'd been watching Lorelai all day as she came one step closer to realizing her dream and he'd noticed that she'd seemed really nervous too. He's thought at the time that it had just been because the inn was about to open and she'd already expressed to him her lack of confidence in her abilities. Of course, he'd learned later that her nervousness had had nothing to do with the inn. It had been all about him. Once they'd both gotten past his crazed outburst after his run-in with Jason, they'd had a good laugh and she'd admitted that she'd realized, just as he had, that their friendship was heading in a whole new direction and that they were on the brink of building a real life together. The more he thought about it, the more he came to understand that that's what they had been doing for years. They'd been slowly, painfully building a life together long before they were officially a couple.

He shifted on his perch and heard a crunching of paper and that was when he remembered that he held his divorce decree in his hand, since he needed it to continue his plans for his life with his future bride. It struck him in that moment that he'd really known his life should be with Lorelai since his marriage to Nicole started falling apart due to the fact that he was unable to cut her out of his life as Nicole had demanded that he do. Lorelai had never known how much she was a part of the reason that he had let his first marriage wither and die. Now, he was ready to marry the woman he should have married all along. He just hoped it wasn't too late.

"Might as well get this over with," he muttered as he finally rose from his makeshift seat on the porch rail and walked through the front door of the inn where he waited for Michel to finish up with the guests standing at the front desk.

Upon seeing Luke standing there in his usual jeans-and-flannel combo, Michel pretending not to know him, said, "I'm sorry, Sir, but if you're looking for a room, we're completely booked," not wanting the well-groomed guests who were checking out to know that this scruffy man was in any way affiliated with the inn that he took such pride in looking after. He wanted to be sure that they'd remember their stay with enough fondness to come back. He wasn't about to let a slovenly diner owner ruin that.

Luke rolled his eyes and said impatiently, "Cut the crap, Michel! Will you just tell Lorelai that I'm here?" He was in no mood to deal with the smarmy Frenchman and his snotty attitude toward him.

"I would be more than happy to do so if she were here, but once again, she has taken off and didn't leave me any information about where she was or how she could be reached since she can't be bothered to answer her cell phone anymore," he said before turning his attention back to the guests he'd been waiting on. He handed them back the credit card he'd been holding along with their receipt. "I hope that you enjoyed your stay at the Dragonfly. Please come back to see us anytime," he said to the departing guests with his typical reserved-for-guests-only smile.

As the guests made their way out the door, luggage in tow, Luke approached Michel, saying, "What do you mean, Lorelai's not here? I was supposed to pick her up." He was beginning to panic wondering if the fight they'd had had pushed her too far. He feared that she'd taken seriously what he'd said about them not being ready for marriage. He hoped with all his heart that that wasn't the case and that she'd just needed to cool off, but who knew with Lorelai, especially given her recent emotional outbursts due to her pregnancy.

"I'm sorry, but I'm not your fiancé's keeper," Michel said with the usual snobbery he directed at Luke. "Usually when she shirks her responsibilities around here, it's because of you. If she's not with you, then I have no idea where she is. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have work to do that Lorelai should be doing, but since she no longer views this inn as a priority, I must do these things myself. You can wait in her office until she returns if you like," he said with a dismissive wave in the direction of her office wanting to get Luke out of the view of the public.

"No thanks. I'll just call her cell," Luke said gruffly as he pulled his own cell phone out of his pocket.

"Good luck getting her to answer," Michel said sarcastically.

"Did it ever occur to you that the reason she didn't answer when _you_ called was because she just didn't want to talk to you," Luke countered as he pressed the familiar speed dial on his phone and stomped back out the door. Just as he heard ringing on the other end, he saw Lorelai's jeep pulling into the inn's driveway. He hastily pushed the end button on his phone and rushed over to the jeep before Lorelai had even put it in park.

Lorelai climbed out of the Jeep and was surprised to see Luke standing there. "What are you doing here?"She asked him warily wondering if he was here to end it once and for all or if her mother was right and he'd just said the things he had in the heat of the moment because he was angry with Anna.

"You don't want me here?"He asked tensely immediately going on the defensive as he was still burning with curiosity over what exactly Lorelai had told Emily that would have made her suggest to Anna that their relationship was in trouble.

"Why wouldn't I want you here?"She countered just as tensely crossing her arms over her chest.

"You tell me. You're the one who's been talking about me behind my back and not letting me in on any of it."

"Luke, I'm sorry," she said as she uncrossed her arms and hung her head at seeing the pain etched on his face. "I'm just so frustrated by this whole thing with Anna. It seems like you're willing to take whatever you can get when it comes to April and it worries me because it's not like you not to fight for what you want."

"I know," he admitted. "But with Anna, I don't really know where I stand on this whole paternal rights thing." He sighed then added, "I've never done this before. How am I supposed to know what's normal when you have a kid with someone you're not with anymore?"

"You're asking me? I don't know the answer to that any better than you do. Christopher barely made an effort with Rory." Luke tensed at the mention of Christopher. "Luke, you have to stop doing that," she said with a frustrated sigh.

"Doing what," he asked as he looked down at his feet.

Lorelai shifted her own position to look Luke in the eye,"Doing that. You can't keep getting all tense and stressed every time Christopher's name is mentioned. We've talked about this before. He's always going to be Rory's father and I can't change that, but you have to know that you're the one who's in my life now. You're the one who's going to stay in my life…I mean… if that's what you still want."

"It is," Luke said without hesitating finally looking up.

"So…Does that mean what you said about it being too soon…?"

"I was angry. I didn't mean it. I meant what I said the other night. I can't wait to marry you and I'm sorry that I blamed you for your mother's assault on Anna."

"One thing about Emily Gilmore, subtlety is not exactly her strong suit," Lorelai said with a shake of her head.

Luke chuckled a little at this and replied, "I guess if she's going to be my mother-in-law, I'm going to have to get used to it, huh?"

"Yes, you are," she said firmly. After a moment's silence, she hesitantly asked, "So, are we ok?"

"God, I hope so," he said. "I don't like it when we don't talk to each other."

"It's not one of my favorite things either," she agreed. "So, what's that." She asked indicating the crumpled papers in his hand.

"Divorce papers," he said. "I got them out because I thought we were going to apply for our license today."

"Oh," Lorelai said in surprise that even after their fight, he'd remembered. "So, that's still the plan then?"

"Unless you don't want it to be," he said defensively.

"Of course I want it to be,"Lorelai. "I proposed to you, remember?"

"Yeah, I remember," he said with a smile as he briefly focused his memory on that night. "So, I guess that's the plan, then."

"Good, let's go then," Lorelai said with an eager smile, relieved that her mother had been right.

"Wait," I do have something I want to say first, just so it's all out in the open."

"Um, ok, "Lorelai replied, tensely, trying to brace herself for what might be coming.

"I know that I'm not always the easiest person to talk to, but it really bothered me that you didn't talk to me about the stuff that was bothering you, but you shared it with your mother, of all people. I mean, you and your mother have never been that close and I thought she'd be the last person you'd talk to about stuff like that."

"Would it have made it any better if I'd talked to Sookie, instead?"

"I don't know, maybe," he said. "At least Sookie wouldn't be judgmental or try to butt in with Anna. Why didn't you talk to Sookie about this anyway?"

"All she's wanted to talk about lately is catering and seating charts and place settings. She's been so high on making all these wedding plans; I didn't want to tell her that there was a chance it might not happen."

"It's _going _to happen," Luke stated adamantly. "I don't want you to ever doubt that again."

"I'll try. I'm just scared."

"You're not the only one," Luke replied.

"You? When have you ever been scared of anything?"

"God, Lorelai, I'm scared all the time. I was a rotten husband to Nicole and I can't help wondering what if I'm the same way with you?"

"You won't be."

"You don't know that," he argued as all of his self-doubt began to creep back in.

"Yes, I do. I think you've learned from the mistakes you made with Nicole. You even said yourself that you thought it was something that you had to go through so you _could _learn how to be a good husband.

"It's not just the husband thing," he said. "This fatherhood thing has got me scared to death too. I royally blew with Rory the other day and I'm screwing up with April…How am I going to be a good father to newborn twins if I can't even handle two girls that are pretty much grown?"

"Newborns are easier to handle," Lorelai said.

"How do you figure?"

"Newborns aren't as complicated. They haven't formed their own personalities yet. You don't have to worry about what to say to them or if they're making the right choices or if you're making the right choices for them. You pretty much just have to feed them and change them and take care of them when they're sick and pay attention to them. It's when they get older that you have to start worrying. Kids don't even start forming long-term memory until they're about three so I figure we've got a three-year grace period to figure out how to not screw them up."

Luke couldn't help but laugh, "You always make everything sound so easy. How can you be so confident?"

"I'm not, really. I just believe in us and that we can handle anything life throws at us."

"I believe in us, too," he said with a smile as he leaned in to hiss her softly.

"Then believe me when I say that you are going to be one amazing father to our kids and I have no doubt you'll be an equally amazing husband."

"You got it," he said. "But if we're going to get to the husband part, we should go get the legal stuff taken care of. You ready?"

"I thought you'd never ask," she said as she reached for the door handle on the jeep, then hesitated, turning back to face Luke.

"What?"

"I have something I want to say too," she said.

"Shoot," he said more confidently than he felt.

"I'm sorry that I didn't tell you what I was feeling. I want you to know that it wasn't because I didn't trust you. It's just that I see how happy you are when you get to spend time with April and I didn't want anything to spoil that, but I felt like Anna owed you more than that since she kept you from even knowing about April most for most of her life."

"I get it. I kinda feel the same way now that Rory's hanging with her dad so much. I'm happy that she's happy, but at the same time I can't help but feel like he owes her more than the occasional dinner. He ought to be explaining where he's been all these years and busting his ass to make up for it."

"If you feel that way, then why haven't you been doing more as far as your visitation with April is concerned?"

"For the same reason that I don't like Rory's new thing with Christopher, I'm afraid she'll get hurt, especially if this would turn into a big battle between me and Anna. I don't want her to be caught in the middle or be forced to choose sides."

"Or maybe you're just afraid that she's choose Anna, since she's been in her life longer," Lorelai suggested.

"Maybe…I don't know," he said. "I do know one thing for sure. I'm not going to let Anna tell me that you're not allowed to be a part of April's life. I'll tell you what we'll do. When we get done with our wedding errands, why don't we go down to Woodbridge and talk to Anna together? April will be at her chess club thing this afternoon, so we'll be able to talk to Anna without getting her involved if it gets ugly. I mean, we'll have a little time before we have to go see Reverend Skinner. That is….if you want to," he added hesitantly when she didn't reply.

Lorelai just looked at Luke for a moment suddenly wondering why she'd been afraid to bring up the subject in the first place. "Good plan," She said. "Let's go."


	52. Chapter 52

Author's note: Here is the next promised chapter. I want to offer an apology for not including the conversation with Anna in this. I have every intention of doing so, but the preceding conversation between L/L ended up being more detailed than I had intended once I started writing it. That, combined with the fact that I wanted to include Rory in this chapter since she hasn't been in the last few, would have made this installment too long if I'd included it. Rest assured, though, it will be the first thing in the next chapter. It's already started and if I stay motivated to keep writing long enough should be posted later this week. Thanks to all of you who stuck with me during my long absence and took the time to read and review.

Lanie

After completing their marriage license application, Luke and Lorelai rode in silence from Stars Hollow to Woodbridge, neither quite sure what to say. Both of them were nervous about how the upcoming conversation with Anna might go. Both dreading it but at the same time knowing that it had to be done if they were ever going to be able to move forward with their life together. Luke was driving, concentrating more of his energy than he needed to on the road while Lorelai chewed on her lower lip lost in thought.

When Lorelai finally broke the silence, it was with a typical a Lorelai Gilmore ramble," So, how do you wanna approach this? I mean, should we wait to see Anna's reaction when she sees us and take it from there or do you just want to start in on how unfair she's being? No, that would be too confrontational and might just make it worse. Maybe I should start things off by apologizing to her for my mother's behavior. Maybe that might make her more open to what we have to say. Or maybe since you're April's father, you should be the one to start the conversation. I mean you've known her a lot longer than I have and you'll be able to figure out what she'll do better than I will; Or how about this? We could just tag-team her and give her no choice but to listen. Or maybe she'll already be willing to listen. Now that she's had some time to think about it, maybe she realizes how ridiculous she was being by saying that you could only see April at the diner. I mean, April spent the whole weekend with us and came back home in one piece. That has to mean something, right, like we're not going to do anything to hurt her?"

"Do you actually need me for this conversation?"Luke questioned with a chuckle when his fiancée finally stopped to take a breath.

"I don't know. My thoughts are just going a million different directions at once and I think better if I say what I'm thinking out loud."

"You couldn't have applied that logic a few days ago when you were talking to your mother instead of me before we had a big screaming match in front of half the town," he quipped grateful that they were on their way to at least attempting to resolve their issues.

"Again, sorry," Lorelai said sheepishly. "I was a moron for not talking to you about it."

"You don't need to apologize again," Luke said. "I get that you were confused. Hell, I've been involved in this mess longer than you have and I'm still confused by it."

"That could've been avoided by you letting me in sooner," Lorelai pointed out.

"Yeah, I know, ok? I was an idiot not to include in things with April from the start. Sorry."

"I guess my mother was right. We're both idiots."

"The whole town must think that we're completely crazy," Luke said with a shake of his head.

"Come on, it's Stars Hollow, a town so defined by its craziness it makes Rome, Wisconsin look like Mayberry. I'd say we're the normal ones."

"Rome, Wisconsin?"Luke queried wondering if this was yet another movie reference he didn't get.

"Hello? _Picket Fences, _you know, that weird-ass show that had a cow giving birth to a human baby and other equally crazy stuff."

"No, I don't know. I don't think I've ever seen it."

"You have led a sad, sheltered life, my friend," Lorelai said. "We _so_ have to watch them together now. I have 'em all on tape."

"Imagine that," Luke said dryly, not a bit surprised by that, considering he'd seen the gargantuan size of her videotape collection and had been trying in vain to get her to pare it down since they'd begun the remodeling on the crap shack. At least in the new house they'd have more room for it since she insisted that every single tape was vital to her collection.

"So, any thoughts on how we're going to deal with Anna," Lorelai asked trying to guide the conversation back to more important matters.

"Why don't we just play it by ear," Luke suggested. "Like you said, we don't know how she's going to react to us just showing up, especially since she's under the mistaken impression that our relationship is falling apart."

"But it's not, right?"Lorelai asked apprehensively.

"How can you ask that after everything?" Luke asked impatiently. "I thought that we agreed back at the inn that as long as we tell each other everything, we'll be fine. That includes you coming to me first if you've got a problem with me rather than going to your mother." Luke had tried to make a joke of it earlier in their conversation just to keep the peace, but it was still bothering him that Lorelai had kept her true feelings hidden from him when they were supposed to be working toward building a real life together.

"Well, it's not like you've been exactly Mr. Over-share lately either. I mean, I had no idea that you were still feeling like you're not gonna be a good husband or father. Why didn't you tell me any of that?"

"You have enough stress on you with the new house stuff, the wedding plans, and all this crap with your parents, not to mention worrying about running the inn. While we're on the subject of the inn, you should fire that French asshole," He added still irritated over the way Michel had brushed him off as if he were nothing more than a fly buzzing around his head.

"I'm not firing Michel," Lorelai said. "He may be a little abrasive, but he's good at what he does and the guests love him."

"You should have heard the way he talked to me today and the way he talked about you. I don't see how your guests can love him as hostile as he is."

"That's the thing about Michel. His hostility entertains the guests because they think it's all one big joke. They don't really realize that he's being completely serious. Can we just forget about Michel and concentrate on us. You still haven't give me a real answer about why you've been keeping your feelings all bottled up. I need to be in on this stuff."

"Look, I already said I think you've got enough to worry about with all the stuff you're already dealing with. I don't want to be any more stressed out than you have to be while you're pregnant. I want you to take care of yourself."

"But if you're having a problem, I need to know about it. It's like I said when I first found out about April. I don't want you going into this all jumbled up," Lorelai said pausing for a moment, swallowing the lump in her throat as she tried to brace herself to continue. "Maybe there was some truth to what you said when we were arguing. Maybe it's too soon."

"No, Lorelai," Luke stated vehemently. "You have to know that I didn't mean that. I'm just still a little freaked out by all this new stuff, especially trying to be a good dad and not knowing what the hell I'm doing."

"I think you keep forgetting that we're in this together. Nobody has all the answers to parenthood. I mean, look at me. Rory's grown and I still screw up with her or do you not remember when we weren't speaking to each other for months?"

"Of course, I remember. You were going through hell when all that was going on, but you guys worked it out," Luke said with a sigh wishing that he could work things out with Rory as well. She was so pissed at him, he wasn't sure she'd ever speak to him again. "I totally blew it with Rory," he blurted out without meaning to.

"You'll work it out with her, just like I did."

"Easy for you to say when she's your kid, not mine," Luke spat out bitterly.

"So, this is about your jealously of Christopher again," Lorelai said sadly as she had hoped he'd have gotten over that by now.

"No, this doesn't have one damn thing to do with Christopher," Luke grumbled. "I'm just saying that it was easier for you to work things out with Rory because you're her mother. You guys couldn't stay mad at each other forever, but me? As much as I care about her, I'm not really anything to her but the guy who's sleeping with her mom."

"You know something? I've had it with this self-pitying attitude of yours. It's not like you. You're a lot more to Rory than that and you know it! You're the one who's always been there for her and looked after her, helped take care of her when she was sick..." Lorelai hung her head in dismay at the fact that Luke couldn't seem to see how important he was, not only to her, but to her daughter as well.

"Maybe that was true when she was little, but she doesn't need me anymore. She has her own father now," he said sadly as he recalled how Rory had deserted them at the country club in favor of the Haydens.

"You need to stop this. You have to stop letting Christopher get to you. Rory's relationship with Christopher has nothing to do with her relationship with you. He may be her father, but in her heart you're her dad. You always have been, even before we were a couple. That's not going to change just because the two of you had a fight. I kinda' don't get where this is coming from. I thought we'd worked all that out after your blow-up with her. I agreed that you weren't totally wrong in wanting to protect her, but that you went about it the wrong way. I also suggested a solution in order to make it up to her."

"Well, I think I'll feel a lot better when I can actually talk to Rory and try to work this out with her. That is if she'll even speak to me again."

"She will, Hon. You just need to give her a little time to cool off. She'll come around."

"Maybe I'll go up and see her on Wednesday while you're working. I did promise I'd help her get her stuff packed up to bring some of it home this weekend, so we don't have to do it all next weekend. I'll apologize to her."

"And Jess," Lorelai reminded him. "Don't forget Jess. You were out of line with him, too."

"Do you blame me? He was horrible to her before and I don't know that I can trust him with her again."

"He was just barely 18 then. You have to give him the benefit of the doubt, Luke. You even admitted when you went to see him in Philly that he's grown up a lot since then."

"Since when have you been a member of Jess' fan club? You were always the one who wanted him to stay away from Rory when she was a kid."

"I know, but I'm trying as hard as I can to be supportive of Rory's life choices. I don't want to turn into my mother, though she has been a lot more supportive lately. I guess that's why I felt more comfortable talking to her than I ever have before. She's finally accepted you and me being together and I don't want her going back to trying to split us up again."

"Well, it didn't work the first time. What makes you think it would work if she tried it again?" When Lorelai didn't answer, Luke began to get worried. "You're not that insecure about our future, are you?"

"No," Lorelai said hesitantly.

Luke immediately picked up on the uncertainty in her voice and with a furrowed brow stated deprecatingly "You don't sound entirely convinced of that."

Lorelai sighed. "You got me there," she reluctantly admitted. "But I _want _to feel secure about our future, if that makes you feel any better."

"How is that supposed to make me feel any better? You just told me an hour ago that you believed in us, now you don't seem so sure."

"I _do _believe in us, it's me I'm not so sure about," she said as her mother's words from the night before about her purposely sabotaging her own relationships came back to haunt her. She couldn't help but wonder if that was what she was doing with Luke now. She had this amazing guy who would do anything to make her happy, who loved her daughter as if she were his own and yet she was complaining about his relationship with his daughter when other women would be none too thrilled to find out that the man they were about to marry had a kid with another woman, let alone spending time with the other woman's kid when they were having a family of their own. She wondered if she wascrazy like her mother had always told her she was or if it was just pregnancy hormones making her nuts. Or maybe her mother was right. Maybe she _was_ afraid of reaching out for real happiness, so terrified that it wouldn't last that it caused her to make sure it didn't because it was better than living with the fear of losing it all after finally finding it. Maybe she was just looking for trouble where there wasn't any. She recalled the day she'd initially made all the wedding plans and her resulting conversation with Rory about how she hadn't freaked out about Luke. Maybe she was having a delayed freak-out.

"What about you? You don't want to marry me anymore? You were just reminding me that you were the one who proposed in the first place."

"I know that and I do want to marry you, but it was very bluntly pointed out to me by my mother that just when I get close to having my happily-ever-after, I do something to screw it up."

"And this is the woman you've been trusting with your secrets," Luke said with a derisive snort.

"I told you why, Luke. I needed someone to talk to and I've never gotten along with her this well before. It's almost like, maybe someday, I can actually have a normal mother-daughter relationship with her. I…I don't know what I was thinking in trusting her not to try to interfere in our lives, I mean, as nice as she's been about everything lately, I still should have seen this coming. I should have known better. I mean, this is Emily Gilmore we're talking about. Now, we're left trying to figure out how to fix the mess she caused, if that's even possible."

"I think the mess was already there," Luke admitted. "You were right. I wasn't stepping up like I should've been. I've just been so afraid of stirring up trouble and Anna maybe cutting off my visitation altogether that I didn't want to dare asking for more."

"I just hope that we can work something out with her," Lorelai said anxiously, hoping that her big mouth hadn't ruined everything.

"Well, I guess we'll find out soon enough," Luke said as he pulled the Jeep up to the curb in front of Anna's house. "You ready for this," he asked taking her hand once he'd put the Jeep in park and turned off the engine.

Lorelai took a deep breath and released slowly before answering, "As ready as I'll ever be." She leaned over and kissed Luke lightly. "Kiss for luck," she said as she pulled back.

"A guy needs a little more luck than that," Luke said with a devilish grin.

"Maybe later, Stud," she said with a laugh. "I don't think it'd make too good an impression if Anna would happen to come out here and catch us making out in the car."

"Probably not," Luke agreed. He let out a deep sigh then said, "Come on, Crazy Lady, let's go get this over with." They both climbed out of the car and walked apprehensively toward the house where April spent most of her time, both nervous about what might happen once they got inside.

Rory hadn't ceased activity since she'd stepped into the newsroom after her classes were over for the day. She'd been flitting non-stop from one desk to another as she waited anxiously for her staff to put the finishing touches on what was to be the final issue of the _Yale Daily News_ of the school year. "Come on, People," she shouted growing ever more impatient as the minutes toward their deadline seemed to race by. "We're on a deadline! Don't you remember deadlines?"

"Rory, I don't know what your problem is," Paris piped up from her desk as she typed furiously. "But you seriously need to take a pill. I was never this uptight when _I _was the editor."

"Get real, Paris," Logan interjected as he entered the room. "Who are you trying to kid? When you were the editor, you were so uptight you made Prince Charles look like he'd overdosed on Prozac"

"I don't recall anyone asking you, Gimpy-boy," Paris fired back indicating the cane he was leaning on for support due to his recent accident.

"What the hell are you even doing here, Logan?"Rory snapped impatiently. "This newsroom is for people who are actually here to work!" With everything else that was going on in her life, the last thing she needed was another confrontation with her ex.

"Well, the last time I checked, I was still on the staff of this paper," he reminded her.

"You could've fooled me," Rory huffed.

"Come on, Ace. Can't you cut me a little slack? I mean, I was just in a horrific accident, which you very well know, since you came to see me in the hospital."

"So, again I ask, what are you doing here?"

"Turning in my article," he said as he struggled to reach into the bag on his shoulder while still leaning on the cane for support.

"Here, let me," Rory said as she reached for the bag when she saw him fighting with it. "Where's it at?"

"Middle pocket," he answered. "Hey, Ace" he began reaching for her arm with his free hand.

"Don't," Rory said sharply as she pulled away from him. "And don't call me Ace," she added icily not wanting him to take her offer to help as a sign that she was ready to forgive and forget. She'd made it very plain that things were over between them. She wasn't about to change her mind now, especially since she was on the verge of something with Jess. She wasn't sure yet exactly what that something was yet, but she was ready to explore the possibilities.

"Oh right. It's _Lorelai_, isn't it," he said with a sneer as he recalled their last conversation in the newsroom.

"That's right," she said dismissively as she perused his efforts, having extracted his article from the bag. She frowned as she read. "This is it? This is your brilliant contribution to the paper?"

"I did the best I could with what you gave me to work with," he countered. "I tried to make the history club's fundraiser for the Antique Machinery Association Museum as interesting as I could."

"I thought that kind of thing would be right up your alley," Rory replied scathingly.

"Seriously? How would a museum that houses antique farming equipment be right up my alley?"

"There was a big party with a whole bunch of society hotshots there and probably a few drunken debutantes you could have had some fun with."

"I'm not interested in drunken debutantes. There's only one girl that I'm interested in," he said pleadingly as he hobbled closer to her.

"Sorry, I can't help you with that," Rory said turning her back on him and walking toward Paris' desk in order to put some distance between them. "Paris, how's your article coming?"

"Almost there," Paris answered without looking up still focusing on her work.

Logan, not willing to let it go, followed her. "How long are you going to hold this bridesmaid thing against me? I admitted that I made a mistake and I would do anything to make it up to you. Give me another chance. Come on, Ace." When Rory simply turned and glared at him, he backed away raising his unoccupied hand in surrender. "Sorry, _Lorelai_," he said sarcastically.

When Rory still remained silent, Paris ceased typing and decided to jump in. She fixed Logan with a frosty glare and said, "You know, you could have just emailed your article in. You didn't have to come in here with your pathetic cane, trying to wring sympathy out of Rory like one of those annoying little yappy dogs that looks up at you with its big, brown, sad eyes hoping that you'll put it out of its lonely misery and give it a home."

"That wasn't what I was doing and my eyes are blue, Paris."

"Look, Logan," Rory said finally breaking her silence toward him. "You've turned in your article and I'll make sure it gets published. There's really no need for you to exert yourself anymore that you already have." She took a deep breath before continuing. "You can't do anymore here that will make a difference," she said frostily, making it pointedly clear that she was talking about more than just the paper.


End file.
